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This letter was published in the Vancouver Sun May 2010
As social workers, we are disheartened to hear about the move to charge daily fees to convalescent care patients. The Minister argues that this simply brings this type of care in line with respite and palliative care where fees are already charged. While this is true, it does not make the pill any easier to swallow for patients. As professionals who work with families every day, we know that there are patients who cannot use respite or palliative care services because the daily fee is a burden to them. The burden will be even greater for convalescent care patients who often don’t know how long they will be in this type of care. In addition, most of these patients still have to pay the costs of maintaining the home they hope to return to. Fees to these groups essentially amount to an additional tax on seniors, many of whom live on fixed incomes.
The BC Association of Social Workers calls on the Minister to eliminate these fees which unfairly target seniors and those at the end of life. While acute care consumes most of our healthcare costs, it appears that users of long term care are the first to be charged fees for health care services. The costs of our health care services need to be distributed equitably among all health service users.
