‘Lack of funding is appalling,’ critics say B.C. budget abandons seniors

Critics warn that the provincial budget, which delays the opening date of several long-term care facilities, will have detrimental effects on senior care.

While the BC Care Providers Association (BCCPA) acknowledged the new funds for the overall health-care system, it says that the money does not reach seniors.

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“The lack of funding in this budget for seniors is appalling,” said BCCPA CEO Mary Polak.

“There are 7,000 seniors right now waiting to get into long-term care. The average wait time is about to get worse is 290 days.”

Polak says that the government’s “re-pacing” on construction of seven new long-term care facilities around the province will have trickle-down effects to the struggling health-care system.

“The next time that you go to your local emergency room and there is a 10-hour wait, an 11-hour wait, or God forbid, maybe it is shut for the weekend, that is where this affects you,” she said.

BCCPA warns crises gets worse

Polak argues that the $2.3 billion allocated for the health-care system will not cover the additional costs for delayed senior care, which she ballparks at $200 to $250 million annually.

She calls on the government to reconsider its spending priorities.

“People are anxious to invest in senior care. The government imposes costs and imposes requirements that are unworkable. Government needs to completely rethink what they’re doing here because they are about to make this crisis unimaginably worse.”

Among others, the NDP government has postponed completion dates for the redevelopment of Burnaby Hospital.

“Burnaby is a good example of a place loaded with lots of old people, and we are shutting down that one particular hospital as well as some of the care homes in the region,” said SFU economics professor Lindsay Meredith, an expert on business demand estimations.

He agrees with Polak, saying that delaying senior care will paralyze the overstretched emergency rooms in the province.

“What’s the fallout? It’s going to jam more patients back into the acute care hospital beds.”

The government says that the pause is necessary in order to reassess why construction costs for long-term care facilities have skyrocketed.

However, Meredith says that this is the wrong approach as seniors are “heavy users” of the health-care system.

“How do we handle it? Look at other countries, the Scandinavian countries have extensive systems of senior support programs,” he said.

“Keep [seniors] out of the acute care beds because those are the ones that are extremely expensive. Get them into these lower step-down hospitals. Your price drops from 3,000 a day on an acute care bed, maybe down to 500 or less.”