Take Action on Seniors Care

(The following article is from the Fall 2012 issue of The Seniors Hub, newsletter of the South Vancouver Seniors Council. It is reproduced here with the permission of Joan Wright, Seniors Hub Coordinator. For more information, please visit their website at www.theseniorshub,org)

Seniors and people with disabilities deserve to live with dignity and respect.

To take action on home and community care, please:

Tell Health Minister Dr. Margaret MacDiarmid that you want full implementation of the Ombudspersons’ recommendations on seniors’ care. Send a letter to the provincial government demanding that it make critical changes to improve the lives of BC seniors and people with disabilities. Call on the province to scrap its user fee scheme for hospital care. Tell the BC government to reverse penalizing fee increases for residential care. Continue reading

How does BC healthcare funding compare to other provinces? (CCPA)

“While health care has fared relatively well compared to other areas in provincial budgets over the last decade, BC has not kept up with other Canadian provinces. In 2001, BC had the second highest level of health spending per capita in Canada; by 2011 it had fallen to second lowest. This might not be cause for concern if BC’s lower rate of growth in health spending were the result of widespread efficiencies as opposed to restraint policies that reduced access to needed home and community care services and hospitals. “ Marcy Cohen, Caring for BC’s Aging Population, July 2012, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. http://www.policyalternatives.ca/hcc-for-seniors