Solution to Crisis of Health Care System Lies in the Fight for the Rights of All
Crisis in BC Long-Term Care Homes Highlights the Need to Increase Investments in Social Programs Including Care for Seniors
- Barbara Biley -
Comox meeting on the crisis in BC seniors' care, February 24, 2020, prior to pandemic.
The terrible tragedy of the precious lives of seniors
lost in long term care homes has not escaped British Columbia,
particularly the densely populated area of the Lower Mainland. In fact,
the first cases of COVID-19 in Canada and the first death was at the
Lynn Valley Care Centre in North Vancouver. There have been outbreaks
of
COVID-19 in over two dozen long-term care homes in three of the five
Health Authorities into which the province is divided. The two regions
that have had no long-term care home outbreaks are Northern British
Columbia and Vancouver Island.
 Long-term care homes in British Columbia have been under increased scrutiny
over the last few years thanks to the actions of unions, including the
Hospital Employees' Union "Care Can't Wait" campaign which drew attention
to the need to increase investments so as to increase staffing levels
in long term care homes, and, especially, courageous
public advocacy by family members of residents of long-term care homes.
The activism of unions and families contributed to the investigation by
the Office of the Seniors' Advocate into how long-term care homes are
funded and how the funds are allocated. The report of this investigation, entitled A Billion
Reasons to Care, was issued on February 4.
Several
hundred people on Vancouver Island took part in public meetings in
February to discuss the crisis in long-term care and put forward
proposals for change. By the time those meetings took place, the
conditions in four long-term care homes run by Retirement Concepts had
resulted in four different medical officers of health, three on
Vancouver Island and
one in the Interior, ordering the Health Authorities to take over the
operation of the homes. Families of residents in several Retirement
Concepts homes in BC had already applied for certification of a class
action suit regarding the care of seniors, against the company and the
Ministry of Health, which is pending. The Retirement Concepts chain
includes 20 homes in BC and Alberta. In 2017, Retirement Concepts was
purchased, with federal approval and the acquiescence of the provincial
government, by the Chinese multinational insurance
company Anbang. Another Retirement Concepts home, Millrise Seniors
Village in southwest Calgary, was taken over by Alberta Health Services
on May 4 by order of Alberta's Chief Medical Officer of Health.
In the context of the COVID-19 emergency, British
Columbia was the first province to take specific action to address some
of the problems in long-term care homes. Orders from the Chief Medical
Officer of Health Bonnie Henry and from the Minister of Public Safety
and Solicitor
General Mike Farnworth were issued on March 26 and April 10
respectively
and put in place the requirement that workers in long-term care homes
work in only one home, that workers be paid for the hours that they
would normally have been working before being restricted to working in
only one home. Regarding wages, the orders stated that all workers in
long-term care be paid at the
rates in the collective agreement between the Health Employers'
Association of British Columbia (HEABC) and the Nurses' Bargaining
Association, and between the HEABC and the Facilities Bargaining
Association, the "master agreement" which covers all workers in BC
hospitals, long-term care homes owned and operated by the Health
Authorities, and many of the homes operated by not-for-profit
societies.
The measures taken to address the low
wages and prevalence of precarious work, both part-time and casual,
which force workers to have multiple jobs in different facilities to earn full-time wages, are a necessary
stop-gap response to the immediate crisis. The devil, however, is in
the details.
Although the "single-site" order was issued on March 26 and the
order of the Solicitor General that permitted the variance of
collective agreements to allow for the wage top-up for workers outside
the nurses' and Facilities Bargaining Association (FBA) agreements, was issued on April 10, the
implementation, which is complicated, is still not complete. In most
cases the single-site
order was in effect by May 11 but in most seniors' homes operated for
private profit the wage top-up has not taken place. Such a major
undertaking is obviously complicated but there are also reports that
some owners are simply refusing to pay. Of greater concern is the fact
that the requirement that workers, once restricted to working in only
one
home, have not had their hours and wages increased to match what they
were earning before the single-site order was enforced. These "heroes"
have been acknowledged for their work caring for some of the most
vulnerable people in British Columbia. In spite of all the best
intentions many are now facing not an increase but a reduction in their
income.
 According
to the analysis of the Office of the Seniors' Advocate, of the $1.4
billion of revenue generated in the contracted care sector (all but the
Health Authority operated homes), $1.3 billion comes from the
provincial government. The province funds all operators, public,
not-for-profit and for-private-profit, at a level sufficient to pay FBA
and nurses' pay rates to all staff. Private operators sign contracts with
the Health Authorities based on what they consider acceptable
profits, but then those profits are increased immensely by paying wages
up to $7.00 an hour lower than the FBA and nurses' rates. And all of this is
perfectly legal. Both the current crisis and the inability of the
government to take care of the immediate needs of the workers reflect
the fact that the system is organized to serve the narrow private
interests of the operators and not, as Canadians expect and demand, to
take care of residents and those who look after them.
Seniors who live in long-term care residences and the
workers who care for them
have claims based on the value that they produce for society, the
seniors on the basis of the capacity to work that they contributed
during their working lives, the workers on the basis of their capacity
to work that is purchased by the operators today. The ruling elite who
control the means of production and distribution do not value the
capacity to
work of those who work in long-term care homes and consider those who
are past their productive years to be a burden. Resolving the crisis in
care for seniors requires the determined effort of the entire working
class to increase the portion that workers receive of the value that
they create, both in the form of higher wages and increased
investments in health care, education and other social programs.
This article was published in
Number 37 - May 28, 2020
Article Link:
Solution to Crisis of Health Care System Lies in the Fight for the Rights of All: Crisis in BC Long-Term Care Homes Highlights the Need to Increase Investments in Social Programs Including Care for Seniors - Barbara Biley
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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