Most British Columbians want more health focus on long-term care: survey
Posted Apr 27, 2015 9:53 am PDT
Last Updated Apr 27, 2015 at 9:54 am PDT
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – They’re the places we turn to in the event of sudden illness or injury. But is our health care system too focused on things like hospitals and emergency rooms?
A new survey suggests most of us would like to see more attention on other areas, like long-term care beds, services for seniors with chronic illnesses, and residential care homes.
Daniel Fontaine, CEO of the BC Care Providers Association says more than 60 per cent of people polled by Insights West feel that way, and more than two thirds of us think the government doesn’t put enough money into residential care.
“About 80 per cent of British Columbians felt that regardless of where you lived in the province, the funding for your care should be the same, and that’s not happening right now,” says Fontaine.
“We also found that when we asked the public perceptions of things like how much funding they think a residential care home would get for food to provide for seniors for the course of a day… from a health authority, the public thought that was around $69 a day. The reality is the residential care homes have to make do with about $6 to $7 a day, which is a big gap.”
A panel of industry experts will be speaking at a discussion this afternoon on myths and misconceptions of the continuing care sector.
