Hospital union says senior care needs more scrutiny after 3 centres taken under gov’t control
Posted December 4, 2019 2:17 pm.
Last Updated December 4, 2019 4:58 pm.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The Hospital Employees’ Union is raising the alarm about the status of privately-run senior care facilities in British Columbia, urging extra scrutiny.
The call comes after three senior care centres run by Retirement Concepts on Vancouver Island were put under provincial government control because of staffing and patient care issues last month.
Jennifer Whiteside, secretary-business manager of the HEU, says staffing is a major concern at the company’s facilities and other private care providers.
“When you have a situation where a care aid is earning as much as seven dollars an hour less than the health authority operated facility down the street, what happens is, they want to go work for the health authority.”
Retirement Concepts was purchased by Chinese-based Anbang Insurance Group in 2017, a company that is now under the control of the Chinese government after its chair was arrested last year for financial crimes.
It’s the largest provider of private care beds in B.C.
“In the short term and immediately, with regard to Anbang, there needs to be scrutiny over all retirement concept sites to assess whether Retirement Concepts is in fact meeting its obligation,” Whiteside says. “It’s an occupation that many operators are having trouble recruiting for, and there are different dynamics, different issues in different parts of the province.”
