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CBC Radio-September 12, 2009

The decision by the Fraser Valley Health Authority to reclassify more than 200 acute-care beds amounts to a cut, an opposition MLA says, but the health authority insists there will be no change to patient care.

The health authority's decision to redesignate 234 beds to "alternative levels of care" from acute care is the same thing as cutting those beds, NDP health critic Adrian Dix said Friday.

"They're downgrading the level of service" for those beds, Dix said. "The purpose of this is to save money. How are they saving money? They're saving the money by cutting service levels."

BC Health Minister Kevin Falcon says the opposition is "mischaracterizing" plans by the Fraser Health Authority to convert 234 acute care beds into specialized units for long-term care patients.

Falcon says about 10% of beds are made up of patients receiving a level of care they don't require, such as seniors or people waiting for mental health services in the community, "We've added, actually, 300 acute care beds to Fraser Health since it was set up in 2002. And, we've got more coming. In fact, the new Surrey Memorial Tower -- the new six storey tower that we're going to be building -- will have almost 150 new acute care beds."

Falcon says Fraser Health is doing exactly the right thing by making sure "alternative level of care patients" are all within the same wards.

Byline: Carlito Pablo, Georgia Straight

Providers claim Liberals plan to claw back funds.

A health-industry group has claimed that grandparents and other seniors recuperating in publicly funded facilities may end up getting poor-quality care because of the harmonized sales tax. In effect, some $42 million will be siphoned out of funding for elderly care and into the provincial treasury in the form of additional tax costs over the rest of the B.C. Liberal government's current term of office, according to an analysis by the B.C. Care Providers Association.

"What this represents is just a transfer of money back from the health budget to the finance ministry," BCCPA spokesperson David Hurford told the Georgia Straight. "If you're going to a restaurant...the consumer there is clearly paying the costs. In our sector, these are public-health dollars. You're taking health dollars out of the system. It's just going back to the Ministry of Finance." The BCCPA speaks for nonprofit and private operators of facilities accounting for over a third of all publicly funded long-term-care beds in the province. Its member organizations care for more than 10,000 seniors each day, and employ more than 7,000 people.

Senior care providers in BC say the Harmonized Sales Tax will add another 10 million dollars a year to their tax burden and they will be pinched if the Province doesn't offset the extra cost.

BC Care Providers Association CEO Ed Helfrich says facilities with more contracted services will take the biggest hit, "The impacts are obviously quite significant. We have an individual facility that has a potential cost increase of $200,000. That would equate to four or five positions that would have to be eliminated in order to maintain the budget."

But Helfrich says he's optimistic the Province will step up with some form of mitigation. He points to Premier Campbell's pledge to reinvest the 1.6 billion dollars in Federal Transition Funding into health and education when the HST comes into effect.

Source: Kamloops Daily News

Kamloops - Interior Health could open up several beds in Royal Inland Hospital for acute-care patients if it paid for more seniors' beds in private facilities.

Ridgeview Manor and The Hamlets have more than two dozen empty private-pay beds the health authority could contract out, even on a temporary basis.

Hendrik Van Ryk of H and H Total Care Services said Friday 19 of the 28 private-pay beds his company has at The Hamlets in Westsyde are open. The facility has 84 more beds funded by the IHA.

Will McKay, managing partner with Ridgeview's parent company Baltic Properties, said the new Brocklehurst facility has 11 or 12 of its 23 private-pay beds available.

'The outcome is likely layoffs. Care providers won't have any choice,' says head of organization

Byline: Brian Morton, Vancouver Sun

B.C.'s care providers are worried that the province's proposed harmonized sales tax (HST) will significantly reduce quality of care for seniors.

"This could mean a lower quality of care, as care providers are already stretched," said David Hurford of the BC Care Providers Association. "It's a very uncertain time, and there's a growing demand for seniors' services. This makes a tighter budget even tighter.

"The outcome is likely layoffs. Care providers won't have any choice," said Hurford, whose organization represents more than 130 non-profit and private B.C. seniors' care providers responsible for more than 10,000 residential care beds in the province.

NDP leader wants to know details of government plans

Byline: Ian Austin, The Province

Mayors and health-care providers reacted with alarm yesterday at proposed Fraser Health Authority cuts, and NDP Leader Carole James asked the premier to release details of how the province's six health authorities will meet a $320-million shortfall.

Mission Mayor James Atebe was shocked to find in the pages of The Province that Mission Memorial Hospital's emergency ward may be closed -- one of several proposals from Fraser Health to meet a $160-million funding shortfall.

"I object strongly to this even being considered, and I'm sure I speak for the council and the people of Mission," said Atebe. "We haven't been consulted. This is not a good thing to read about in the paper."

Former sawmill worker Jennifer Plewes has been retrained in the health care field

Byline: Amy O'Brian, Vancouver Sun

Jennifer Plewes used to work in a sawmill. Each day, the young mother donned protective gear and went to work surrounded by heavy machinery and swirling sawdust.

A couple of weeks ago, though, Plewes graduated from a six-month program in 100 Mile House that puts her in high demand at the many seniors' care homes throughout the province. Rather than working with lumber and machinery, the 28-year-old will soon be working with seniors.

Plewes is part of a new trend in B.C. that sees men and women who once worked in the forestry sector being retrained to work in seniors' care homes. The demand for health-care workers is high and, as the forestry sector shrinks, there are plenty of British Columbians looking for work.

By Jennifer Moreau, Burnaby Now

Local seniors could be turned away from residential care facilities now that an advocacy group for care providers is imposing tougher admitting guidelines while trying to secure more government funding.

The B.C. Care Providers Association represents about 130 private and non-profit care facilities and mostly advocates on their behalf with the government. It has four member facilities in Burnaby. The association introduced new voluntary guidelines April 7 that allow members to start assessing new patients transferred from health authorities. The authorities pay a daily rate for seniors to stay in residential care facilities.

Referrals with complex care needs that don't come with enough attached funding might be turned away. Underfunding leads to understaffing, and association spokesperson David Hurford said that affects patient safety. "If we can't guarantee safe care, we're not going to accept the patient. That's just the way it's going to be," said Hurford.

By Jeremy Tate and Marcy Cohen, Special to the Sun

With an election on, it's no surprise that the provincial government is claiming success on everything from the environment to the economy. But one area where it hasn't earned bragging rights is seniors' care.

The home and community health-care system that seniors and their families rely on is in serious decline, thanks to years of poorly planned restructuring and a failure to maintain (let alone enhance) access to key services as B.C.'s population ages.

The most problematic area of all is long-term care -- often referred to as residential care or nursing homes.