Improve home and community care now: British Columbians

VANCOUVER, Oct. 25 /CNW/ - Today marks the launch of the BC Health Coalition's Weeks of Action on Home and Community Care. In the coming weeks, concerned citizens across the province will be meeting with their MLAs, making presentations to their health authority boards, and taking action in their local communities to call for improvements to home and community care.

"In this year alone seniors and people with disabilities have been hit with new convalescent care fees and an increase in residential care rates. And they continue to face a shortage of publicly-funded, long-term care beds," says Alice Edge, BCHC co-chair. "British Columbians are fed up - they want the province to prioritize home and community care services now."

Regional health groups are acting in communities across the province. In Kamloops, the local coalition is asking for answers on hospital user fees. "We've just learned that people are being charged a daily fee to recover in Ponderosa Lodge before returning home," says Kamloops Health Coalition co-chair Rick Turner. "We want to know why people are being charged for recovery care, why weren't British Columbians consulted about this, and how are people - especially low and middle-income seniors - going to cope with paying fees in hospital on top of paying to maintain their homes while they are in care?"

Farther north, the Northwest Action Coalition (NAC) is demanding an increase in direct nursing care hours in Terrace. "So many of the problems in residential care in our community could be solved by a simple increase in direct care hours," says Dawna Ottenbreit of NAC. "An increase in the care hours will improve quality of care for residents and ultimately save money by keeping people out of costly acute care beds."

Constituents from dozens of provincial ridings have notified the BCHC that they are requesting meetings with their MLAs to call for improvements to home and community care.

"People are sending a clear message to the province: everyone deserves to live with dignity and respect no matter what our age, ability, income or health status," says Edge.

View the BCHC Home and Community Care campaign demands: http://tinyurl.com/2fsxkem

For further information:

Lew MacDonald, BC Health Coalition Coordinator: 604-787-6541 (cell)