It’s the second of a series of seven town-hall meetings hosted by the group, which opposes the privatization of home care. The event kicks off at 7 p.m. on Thursday.
“The government is about to introduce huge changes to home care in the province, and most people are completely unaware,” said James Hutt, provincial co-ordinator of the Health Network. “We’ve launched this tour to bring people together to discuss how these changes will impact them and to think about what else the government should do to ensure patients get the care they need.”
The town hall is co-organized by the Pictou County Women’s Centre and the Health Network. The first half of the two-hour event will focus on an interactive panel, with perspectives from Veronica MacDonald, a nurse with the Victoria Order of Nurses; Carol Ferguson, a researcher with the Canadian Union of Public Employees Atlantic; and James Hutt, researcher and co-ordinator of the Health Coalition. Arlene MacDonald, executive director of the Women’s Centre, will moderate the panel.
The second half will invite participants to share their own experiences and reflect on ways to improve home care.
With more than 2,500 people on waiting lists for nursing homes, Health Minister Leo Glavine has said this department will not open any new beds. Instead, the Department of Health and Wellness is promoting home care as a way to reduce increased demand on long-term care facilities.
Yet, wait lists for home care have also risen, nearly doubling from 422 people last April to 760 at the end of October, Hutt stated in a release.
Last fall, Glavine announced plans to open home care to a competitive bidding process. The Health Network is opposed to this because they say a competitive bidding process awards home care contracts to the lowest, and would allow for the introduction of for-profit corporations in all regions of the province. Currently, home support in Nova Scotia is almost exclusively provided by non-profit organizations. Only five for-profit companies deliver services, all of them in the Capital Health area.
“How will introducing for-profit corporations affect patients? Will this change who’s entering patients homes, and will this improve or worsen our current shortage of health care workers?” said Hutt. “The evidence from other provinces isn’t good, so we want to get people talking about what it will mean for Nova Scotia.”
Want to go?
The Future of Home Care:
7 p.m. Thursday, April 16
Holiday Inn Express Stellarton
https://www.facebook.com/events/1392662551054724/
