Editor:
I attended along with many older adults the town hall meeting last week hoping to get some information about the proposed new extended care project. One day I might need this facility. However, there was nobody from Vancouver Coastal Health, just a few uninformative pamphlets, and nobody from the Trellis Group or the BC Care Providers Association. We are well aware of the need for more long-term beds now and in the future. A number of points were raised that seriously question the adequacy of an additional 20 beds based on demographics alone. My own information about waiting lists and present conditions comes from seeing the third floor of the hospital while visiting a good friend with mild dementia. He was existing in isolation due to inadequate numbers or training of hospital staff because a hospital ward is not an extended care facility.
Daniel Fontaine, CEO of BC Care Providers Association, wants us to “embrace the plan.” Vancouver Coastal Health carries out the dictates of the current BC government. One of the negative aspects of growing old in B.C. is uncertainty about the availability and quality of public end-of-life care.
There are a host of unanswered questions about the factors that led to the implied decision that 20 more beds will suffice for years to come, that Trellis is the most suitable owner and operator of a public health care facility, etc. How can we embrace a plan that appears from what we have been told to be arbitrary and inadequate?
Jill Hightower, Sechelt
