60% of seniors’ care recommendations still not implemented: B.C. Ombudsperson

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VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – It’s just not good enough: seven years after the first part of a report on how to better care for B.C.’s seniors came out, the ombudsperson says the government still falls short.

To date, Jay Chalke says only 40 per cent of what was recommended in part one has been implemented.

“The ministry accepted these recommendations seven years ago,” Chalke says. “With accepting those recommendations requires some commitment either to make the policy changes or the legal changes or the budgetary changes to bring them into effect.”

Health Minister Adrian Dix says the province is working on getting the changes into place.

“We’re taking action on the recommendations of this, other reports by the seniors advocates and by senior organizations,” he says.

Chalke wants to know why it’s taking so long to implement all 167 recommendations, noting the changes that have been made are lower priority.

“Most of those, I would say, relate to smaller, incremental changes over the past seven years.”

RELATED: B.C. seniors in private care homes more likely to die in hospital: report

He says there are four pieces of legislation related to the fixes that haven’t gone anywhere.

“That’s really concerning because I think when legislators pass a law that’s brought to them by the minister, they have a right to expect that within a reasonable time, that legislation will be brought into force,” Chalke adds.

Some of those past recommendations included giving assisted care residents tenants’ rights, and regulating care standards — such as how often someone should be given a bath, or how quickly to respond to a call bell for a staff member.

While he understands the changes have to be made as part of a larger system, he says a seven-year wait is unacceptable, noting the report was first released in 2012.

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