Vancouver Coastal Health’s (VCH) Sunshine Coast director says the health authority doesn’t dispute a claim by local doctors that 20 new long-term care beds will not meet future needs.
More than 50 members of the Sunshine Coast Division of Family Practice sent a letter to Health Minister Terry Lake and VCH in November. It said 57 new long-term care beds are needed immediately, and 126 by 2018, just to get up to the VCH average of 91.5 beds for every 1,000 people over the age of 75.
During an update on VCH’s long-term care plan at the Dec. 1 meeting of the Regional Hospital District (RHD), Lauren Tindall said, “We have a disagreement on some of those numbers, based on the modelling we do, but we do agree the count of 20 [beds] is not going to be enough to meet our long-term needs.”
The VCH plan involves a deal with Trellis Seniors Services for beds in the company’s proposed Silverstone Care Centre and the closure of Shorncliffe and Totem Lodge.
RHD directors also wanted to know how VCH has responded to the doctors’ letter, and Tindall said they will be meeting soon with the Division of Family Practice. She also said Trellis has been meeting with workers at the two facilities slated for closure, as well as the residents and their families.
The RHD board, which is made up of the directors of the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD), voted to throw their support behind the doctors by writing their own letter to the health minister and trying to arrange a meeting with Lake.
The motion notes that a lack of long-term care beds is having an impact on acute care at Sechelt Hospital, reducing the benefit of the significant investment of local tax dollars the RHD made to fund the expansion project. It also calls for “the initiation of a process to further address the need for residential, long-term care beds.”
“We just heard from VCH staff that [20 beds] is not going to be enough,” said Mark Lebbell of Roberts Creek, after putting forward the motion. “Whatever that process looks like, and however it plays out with the current situation, is open at this point, but we need to look at initiating a process.”
Halfmoon Bay director Garry Nohr said he wants to see a meeting with Lake as soon as possible so it doesn’t get overshadowed by other issues as the 2017 election campaign draws closer.
Friends of Residential Care Sunshine Coast, a newly formed group hoping to spearhead a Coast-wide consultation on long-term care, was due to appear before the SCRD board Dec. 8. The group is requesting $10,000 from the SCRD (and another $10,000 from VCH) to hold community meetings and prepare a report by March 31, 2017. Earlier in the RHD meeting, Nohr said he hoped VCH would be willing to “open up consultation [with the community] further than what they’ve done so far.”
The B.C. Federation of Labour also waded into the long-term care debate last week. Delegates passed a resolution at their annual convention to “call on the government to support public long-term care on the lower Sunshine Coast and throughout the province of B.C.”
The Silverstone Care Centre would be located in Sechelt, and Trellis has now submitted a zoning application for the Derby Road property. Sechelt planning staff are gathering referral comments and the application is expected to go before council’s planning committee in early 2017.
