Locals stand firm against IHA and the Ministry of Health for seniors services

By Mona Mattei

Angry Boundary residents packed the Grand Forks library last night to plan action against Interior Health Authority (IHA) and the Minister of Health. After one year of inactivity at the Broadacres long-term care facility and an investment of over $1.2 million, owner Rod Gustafson will lose his facility licencing this weekend following an announcement from IHA awarding a contract for seniors care services to Golden Life Management.

 

Local residents of all ages, led by a group of seniors irate over the decision, are contacting Minister Kevin Falcon today along with other authorities demanding that Gustafson’s licence be extended while they pressure IHA to review their decision.

 

“There’s so many of us here that volunteer over all these years and now this is the way as a senior you get treated,” exclaimed Laura Lodder, a senior and one of the meeting organizers who has been helping friends whose family members have been sent away.

 

In the interim, IHA has also advised the community that temporary beds for seniors will be made available after renovating several existing acute care rooms at the Boundary Hospital until the Golden Life facility opens instead of a temporary contract with Gustafson.

 

“I lost my husband last November in this hospital. He was in there from Apr. 30 to Nov. 28,” said Jane Pring. “After 30 days I was informed that I had to start paying personally for his care as if he was in a lodge. He did not get 24 hour care because that hospital is understaffed - he was found on the floor twice by another patient. You’re getting ripped off if they put these 10 beds in there.”

 

Gustafson, a Christina Lake resident and registered nurse, bought and renovated an unused Grand Forks facility because he recognized an urgent need for more long-term care beds for seniors in the area. But even though he finalized his licence for services with the province last April, he was unable to start operations as IHA delayed tendering contracts until fall of 2010 and decisions until this week.

 

Despite the availability of a licenced facility in the community for the last year, family members have been given two options for seniors needing to enter care – staying the acute care rooms at the Boundary Hospital until a long-term bed was available, or to be sent to facilities outside of the area breaking up families and friends.

 

“My husband George, they sent him off to Nakusp. I started writing letters to them (IHA) and my daughter in Kelowna contacted them too,” Phyllis Gritchen told the crowd. “They promised they would transfer him when there was a bed available. My daughter said, ‘if my dad isn’t here in Grand Forks soon, and Broadacres isn’t open soon, I’ll go on the Internet and get everybody involved.’ She got people from all over involved. People from Texas (even got involved) because their mother was going to be sent to Penticton.”

 

Gritchen said that after threatening to go to the TV to publicize the problem, “In three days they phoned me and told me he was being sent back here.”

 

Gustafson faced one hurdle after another in his attempts to get authorized through the process with the province. In December he had been hopeful that some temporary placements would be made by the local care workers but they never materialized. In the meantime, all he was able to offer was private care which most people cannot afford.

 

When tenders finally came up the request was for 40 beds.

 

“Initially I just wanted 10 beds. Because IHA said, they were negotiating with me for the 10 temporary beds, they said, you are welcome to bid on the 40 beds as well,” Gustafson explained. “If you don’t win the 40 beds and someone else builds it over here, then when that facility opens, you’re going to lose your 10 bed contract. So I was more or less forced to bid on the 40 beds as well and add it on to my existing facility.”

 

After working closely with IHA to build Broadacres, Gustafson said that the community outrage may be too little, too late and that the loss of his facility will impact the community. He was given no reasons why he did not qualify nor did they advise him of any deficiencies. Gustafson now faces possible bankruptcy.

 

“As of the end of the month I have to surrender my licence back to Interior Health because I haven’t had any clients in there for one year and that’s part of the act. If I want to re-apply, I have to go through the whole process again,” said Gustafson. “Interior Health should have told me right from the start that I didn’t have a chance to get either the temporary beds or the RFP for the 40 beds rather than stringing me along with all my energy and time and money.”

Golden Life Management operates facilities throughout the Kootenays and said that work on the Grand Forks facility, which will offer 40 beds, two private care rooms and a 48-unit independent living community, is expected to begin in September with estimated completion in 2012.