So the politicians came today, all shiny and smiley in their new suits, to announce 150 “new” long term care beds for the Comox Valley. Many of us wept at home afterwards, because the big contract went to yet another for profit elder care home chain, “a good company,” enthused Minister Dix, who is not so great an actor as he thinks.
This in a valley where one care home is already under the control of the Chinese government due to events stemming from the corporate necessity to maximize profits. The board of directors of any company is not legally allowed to do otherwise, no matter how “good.”
Even more depressing, the Minister insisted these were “new beds” blithely and happily ignoring the fact that most of those beds, when built in 2 or 3 years, will be swiftly filled by the overflow waiting in the new acute care hospital, which has been overfilled since it opened. It is planning disaster but no accountability in sight.
“I was in Abbotsford yesterday,” he gushed, “and their hospital was at 120% capacity.” Not exactly sure how that does anything except reinforce the need for more long term care everywhere, but he seemed to think that changed the subject.
(Someone should do an audit on the plain old financial cost of all this nonsense, never mind the lost years, the lost lives of all this neglect and health care chaos. It must add up to hundreds of millions which could have given us the care we need.)
Another 30 of the 150 exciting new beds in the Comox Valley are basically a book keeping move, because they already exist as “temporary” beds and are full.
It is all such a stupid old game, sweep into town like a feudal lord and announce great news – hey you get an extra ration on alternate fridays! smile for the camera you ingrates – which barely stanches the bleeding social wounds, and then denounce realists as those who just always reject good news.
Tonight I am sad and exhausted. And so tired. Tired of dealing with the lack of adequate care management at the foreign-owned care home in the Comox Valley. The licensing officer receives complaints almost every week – not from me – and nothing happens, nothing changes.
Tired of the struggle to save others from this dreadful waste of the last years of their lives on this sweet earth. Tired of looking for a drop of truth or sincerity in this pathetic democracy.
It is just a shell game and our lives as we work, and worse as we age, are the pawns to be conned and then thrown away.
CaringCV 