Wednesday September 30, 2020 | SURREY, BC
by Mary P Brooke, editor | Island Social Trends
Today on Day 10 of the Fall 2020 provincial election, BC NDP Leader John Horgan announced in Surrey that if his government is re-elected on October 24 that a 10-year $1.4 billion program will be rolled out to change over all long-term care facilities so that accommodation is private (one person per room).
That would include new facility builds and renovations of older buildings.
The $10 million added to this year’s budget to underwrite single-site staffing of long-term care homes will continue going forward, said Horgan today in a media teleconference.
The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the low-wage crisis in the home-care worker sector; many workers took shifts at more than one facility in order to cobble together a living wage.
There have been no new health-care facility outbreaks. In total, 14 long-term care or assisted-living facilities and three acute-care facilities have active outbreaks, it was reported.
Challenges of communal living already known:
BC public health knew going into this pandemic that the communal living arrangements in most long-term care facilities would lead to viral transmission. Hence the emphasis by Provincial Health Office Dr Bonnie Henry from day one on ‘protecting our elders’.
The province could have seen this coming, but no doubt changing over the long-term health care without a driving force would have not been something top of mind in normal political times.
Today Horgan said the neglect of the long-term care sector — with regard to facilities, wages for staff, and many homes shifting to a profit-model — has led to the crisis of the high number of deaths due to COVID-19 in long term care this year during the pandemic.
“I think seniors in their latter years should have dignity with one room with just them in it. That’s a goal we’re going to set. It’s going to take us some time to make up for the backlog because of Liberal neglect. But I believe that’s a cause worth fighting for,” said Horgan in the 9:30 am announcement today flanked by supporters (at a 2-metre distance) wearing face masks for that extra layer of protection during the pandemic.
Visiting the hot spots:
This was Horgan’s second campaign visit to Surrey in the early days of the campaign toward election day on October 24.
Opposition on long-term care:
Today in Port Moody, BC Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson said he thinks the single-site payment process should continue in long-term care even after the pandemic.
Speaking today in Oak Bay, BC Green leader Sonia Furstenau said she will release her party’s position on long term care tomorrow, October 1. She said problems shouldn’t be “tinkered with around the edges” but that “we need to look at systemic change”.
Furstenau added: “We have a long way to go to fix a system that has not served families and elders, as it should be.”
