The Health Standards Organization (HSO) recently unveiled their draft national standards for long term care and solicited feedback from stakeholders such as unions like ours who represent health care workers in the sector.
The BCGEU submitted feedback noting the following concerns:
- The draft standard does not introduce any conditions or limits upon for-profit ownership and delivery of services in the long term care sector. This affects both working conditions and conditions of care for clients.
- The draft standard does not adopt a minimum number of hours of direct care (DCH) for residents. We've heard from BCGEU members that a minimum standard for DCH is required, and that currently, the evidence-informed minimum should be set at 4.1 hours per resident.
- We find the language on equity, diversity, inclusion, cultural safety, and appropriateness, despite their appropriate guidelines and intent, is vague and needs more clarity in order to be enforceable.
In the 2021 election, the federal Liberals, who won government, promised to legislate a Safe Long Term Care Act. They funded the HSO to develop national standards for long term care and many experts believe these proposed standards will influence the federal government's legislation.
Throughout this process we've been working to ensure the voices of our members who work in seniors' care facilities are heard. On November 25, 2021 we held a roundtable with members, then sent their key recommendations to the HSO on December 1, 2021. You can read those recommendations here.
Click here to read the draft national standards from the HSO.
We look forward to seeing legislated national standards in long term care and we'll keep you updated as the process unfolds.
In solidarity,
Mahen Ramdharry
Vice President, Component 4 Health Services
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