May 2, 2005
Once again the NDP is issuing misleading statements about long-term care and seniors’ beds, this time in the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority.
- The NDP is only telling part of the story. In this case, the NDP is using a selective reading of the facts – they are only counting residential care beds and are not counting the full spectrum of beds for seniors which include residential care beds, assisted-living units, and home care.
- What the NDP doesn’t say it that there will be a net increase of 706 assisted living units for seniors by December 2006.
- Our plan is working: the wait for a residential care bed in the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority has gone from 360 days under the NDP to an average of 32 days today.
- Since 2001, the BC Liberal government has built more than 4,000 new, replacement or upgraded residential care and assisted living units for seniors.
- Recent examples:
- Cedar Garden, a new 30-unit assisted living complex in North Vancouver (opened February 2005).
- Haro Park Centre in Vancouver where the VCHA converted 36 suites into 36 assisted-living units so seniors could stay in the same neighbourhood as their needs change (opened March 2005).
- 30 more residential care beds at Rosewood Manor in Richmond (under construction).
- Clarendon Court, a new 56-unit assisted living facility in Vancouver (under construction).
- By the end of 2006, there will be a net increase of more than 2,700 new beds for seniors.
- By 2008, we will have achieved our goal of adding 5,000 new beds for seniors across the spectrum of care including assisted living and residential care.
- 1,700 new seniors’ bed units being built right now.
- In comparison, between 1993 and 1999, the NDP actually reduced the number of care beds by 18% (source: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives).
- A 2002 inventory of residential care facilities found that HALF of the existing residential care beds were either unsalvageable and required outright replacement or needed upgrading in order to be used for complex care. Many beds failed to meet modern building and fire codes; resident rooms were overcrowded; hallways and washrooms were too narrow for wheelchairs. Since 2001, we have been renovating, replacing or upgrading thousands of these units.
