Interior Health will welcome a report being put together on seniors’ health care in the province, says Kathy Chouinor, manager residential support for the Thompson-Cariboo Shuswap.
“We value and welcome feed back,” she said. “Health care is extremely complex. There are many issues to taking the time to evaluate ... We’re open to solutions.”
As part of the report the ombudsman is collecting reports from the public regarding senior’s health care. Last week, MLA Norm Macdonald held a seniors’ tea where he spoke to Revelstoke seniors about the report.
“The ombudsman has instructed staff to put together a report,” said Macdonald. “From that she will put together a report.”
Macdonald said the investigation is independent and because of that the government will not be able to control the reports release or what it says.
“It cannot be dismissed as political because it is independent,” he said.
“In my office, I’ve heard many, many issues. It’s difficult on the person making the complaint and it’s difficult on the families.”
Those issues have included less than satisfactory palliative care, and issues surrounding health care and other costs.
Macdonald said he thinks an ideal solution would be to have a seniors representative, someone who focuses completely on health care.
During the seniors tea, the issue of not having a team leader at the Mount Cartier Cottages was brought up.
Chouinor acknowledged that there currently is no team leader and said that they have had challenges in recruiting someone for the position.
“One of the things that’s quite interesting is the lack of affordable housing [which] is a concern for anybody coming from outside,” she said.
Until the position of team leader can be filled, the responsibilities of the team leader are being filled by the manger for Revelstoke Healthcare services.
Another issue which was brought up by one of the seniors at the tea held by Macdonald was that there are five beds in Mount Cartier which are not being used.
“There are five beds in the cottage that are empty, but Interior Health will not fund them because they have a formula for population, we are saying it should go by need not population.”
Chouinor said she did not want to get into a he said/she said argument, but that to her knowledge there are not five empty beds at Mount Cartier.
“The funding formulas are based on population per thousand,” she said. “At this time the resources allocated to Revelstoke actually exceed the usual limits.”
She said that Mount Cartier has 45 beds and that there are spaces for 45 beds.
The issue of couples who have been together for a long time being separated was also brought up during the seniors tea.
The standard, said Chouinor, is for every one to have a single room.
“Licensing permits only five per cent of the rooms [to be] double occupancy. It’s a complex process,” she said.
Overall Choiunor says the report is welcomed and that Interior Health has been actively working through the process with the ombudsman.
“They have concerns. We sat down and we explained who Interior Health is and what our challenges are,” she said. “The reality is there are not enough qualified bodies in Interior Health. We recognize there are challenges across Interior Health.”
Macdonald said with both federal and local elections coming up now is the time to hold elected officials accountable.
“We need to ask, ‘What are you doing for seniors?’ At the local election let’s elect people who are going to fight for seniors.”