WHEREAS a large proportion of our most expensive acute care beds in Canada’s health care system are unavoidably occupied by chronic care patients;
WHEREAS this situation will intensify as the baby-boomer generation retires in larger numbers, resulting in extra costs and an increasing shortage of space and services in acute care facilities;
BE IT RESOLVED that the Government of Canada should offer to partner with provinces, territories and municipal governments, as appropriate, in the expansion of homecare, long-term (chronic) and palliative care facilities and services across Canada, to achieve a more effective and efficient allocation of available health care resources.
National Liberal Caucus
Long overdue strategy to reduce overall health care costs… In home care should be a #1 priority where feasable…
Yes, emphasize homecare. Quality of life benefits are high. But good quality nursing home care is needed for some when homecare becomes impractical.
There was a report put out a few years back (CHA 2009) on this topic. This resolution would be greatly enhanced by incorporating several of their recommendations for national definitions, funding issues, culture of caring, human resource strategies etc.
As referenced below by Tania, the CHA report from the Canadian
Healthcare Association can be found here:
http://www.cha.ca/documents/Home_Care_in_Canada_From_the_Margins_to_the_Mainstream_web.pdfhttp:/www.cha.ca/documents/Home_Care_in_Canada_From_the_Margins_to_the_Mainstream_web.pdf
In summary, the report asserts the relevance of home care within
the sphere of health services, reviewed the landscape of home
care in Canada, identified gaps and opportunities, and provided
8 recommendations to address these gaps and exploit opportunities.
Some key recommendations for the federal government:
- Ensuring stable, predictable funding
- Introduce appropriate pan-Canadian home care principles and
standards to ensure quality service from coast-to-coast-to-coast
- Improve support for both formal and informal caregivers
- Invest in the health human resources necessary to supply
high-quality home care
- Invest in enabling technologies
I have worked in health care as a nurse, nurse manager and nurse educator in both Canada and the USA and a defacto Nurse Practitioner in our underserviced Northern and remote isolated regions. I can tell you that this I completely support this initiative and will continue to stay on top of this developing work. I know that most larger hospitals chronically are at ‘overcapacity’. This means when you or your loved one are admitted to a bed thru emerg, you have a decent of ending up as “hallway Pt”. I’ve looked after Hallway patients and I can tell you that trying to provide them with the same level of care as pts who have a bed, is extremely frustrating if not downright impossible. One of the reasons why we have “hallway Pts” is because of “bed blockers” or “ALC’s (alternative level of care). These are pts who do not require the intensive level of care an acute care facility can provide, but yet are not safe to go home as there are not enough supports at home for the person to be adequately and safely cared for. Many times these are older folks who are just a bit to frail to be discharged home. If the supports were available to them, they COULD be discharged home. Here in BC, there is about a two week wait for a Community Care to send enough supports to the home to begin caring for this frail person. I stood in front of the Summer Caucus and reiterated that we need to put more resources into funding Home Care. I believe that we are lagging behind what other countries offer, and more attention -and resources- needs to be devoted to developing a policy around how we can support at a national level, the enrichment of Home Care services.
The expansion of home care is crucial if we are going to meet the growing health care needs upon us and in the future in a more affordable matter.
This is 2011. Has this not been addressed by Liberal governments in the past? If it was, has the Harper government defunded this aspect of patient care?
It would seem to me to be a no-brainer to provide chronic care as well as palliative care facilities.
Is there a suggestion, now, to combine this resolution and resolution 84?
Needed! Passed.