Editor:
By now we have heard that B.C. Seniors Advocate Isobel Mackenzie has again highlighted the shocking plight of seniors in for-profit care facilities. Her new report demands urgent attention on the Sunshine Coast, since our two publicly-owned facilities are scheduled to be replaced with one for-profit home. Those of us who imagine aging gracefully and happily in our final years may be in for a nasty surprise.
Mackenzie has discovered that for-profit care homes provide far fewer hours of care than do non-profit facilities. For-profit facilities are able to keep money they save by providing this lower quality care, and taxpayers fund their profits! This is a great incentive for facilities to cut costs wherever they can, and reeks of conflict of interest. Is this a situation that we want to live with on the Sunshine Coast?
Some of Mackenzie’s toughest words concern poor government oversight and lack of clear guidelines. She states that reporting processes to the government “lack accountability, openness and transparency.”
“It takes a village,” as they say, and certainly we all need to demand stable, publicly-owned and operated care on the Coast. Our futures may be at stake.
Gail Riddell, Sechelt, Sunshine Coast Alliance4Democracy
