A group of grannies gathered in front of the B.C. Health Ministry office on Thursday afternoon to sing and speak about the state of extended care for seniors in B.C. and Canada.
The Raging Grannies, a satirical grassroots group composed of older women, called for an end to the public funding of for-profit care homes.
B次元官网网址淐OVID-19 has really laid bare the problems in senior care homes. We want to keep it in the public eye [and] hopefully make changes because these are actual peopleB次元官网网址檚 homes,B次元官网网址� said Charlene Simon during the demonstration.
The group practiced physical distancing and wore masks, only removing them to sing songs addressed to B.C.B次元官网网址檚 Minister of Health Adrian Dix.
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B次元官网网址淒ear mister minister, we canB次元官网网址檛 see our family or tell the world that itB次元官网网址檚 worse than jail,B次元官网网址� they sang to the tune of Simon & GarfunkelB次元官网网址檚 Mrs. Robinson. B次元官网网址淧lease mister minister, check up on those private homes where patients suffer and still pay. Do you want your grandmother begging for a diaper? It doesnB次元官网网址檛 have to be this way.B次元官网网址�
At one point, the group put on a skit where some of the women called out for help, with one of them falling out of a wheelchair. Another woman, playing the role of a long-term care home administrator, told them theyB次元官网网址檇 have to wait for care as the doctor is only in once a week or that theyB次元官网网址檇 get their medication when staff had time.
B次元官网网址淲eB次元官网网址檙e asking for accountability in public reporting and transparency,B次元官网网址� Simon said.
The demonstration is in response to a February report published by the B.C. Office of the Seniors Advocate. The report, called A Billion Reasons to Care, examined long-term care industry contracts, annual audited financial statements and detailed reporting on revenue and expenditures for the years 2016 to 2017 and 2017 to 2018.
Highlights from the review say it found that financial reporting systems were inconsistent between health authorities and that they lacked openness and transparency. It also found that less than half of care home operators are required to make their audited financial statements available to the public and no care homes publicly report their expense statements.
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Overall, the contracted long-term care sector generated $1.4 billion in revenue of which $1.3 billion came from public funding, according to the report. The sector generated a net profit of $37 million.
The report says care homes in the not-for-profit sector spent 59 per cent of revenues on direct care versus 49 per cent in the for-profit sector. Not-for-profit care homes spent nine per cent of revenue on building expenses versus 20 per cent in the for-profit sector and for-profit care homes generated 12 times the amount of profit compared to the not-for-profit sector B次元官网网址� $34.4 million versus $2.8 million.
While receiving, on average, the same level of public funding, the report found that not-for-profit care homes spend $10,000 or 24 per cent more per year on care for each resident while for-profit care homes failed to deliver 207,000 funded direct care hours. Not-for-profit care homes exceeded direct care hour targets by delivering an additional 80,000 hours of direct care beyond what they were publicly funded to deliver.
B次元官网网址淭his issue affects us all,B次元官网网址� Simon said. B次元官网网址淲e have a right to know how that money is being spent. We want assurances that provisions brought in during COVID-19 will continue after.B次元官网网址�
-With files from Nina Grossman
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