One item up to consideration is a letter from Interior Health regarding the review of Deni House and whether or not it is suitable for use as residential care for seniors' (Note - I believe it can easily be accomodated for seniors' care, if the political will is there).
From the letter: (See the whole letter here)
Your letter of 19 March 2010 expresses concern about the rationale applied to the
decision to issue an RFP for a 20 bed expansion for residential care beds without any
consultation with the community and in advance of the CMH Master Planning Process.
This concern primarily relates to the issue of potentially using Deni House for residential care and the need to make a decision about this before proceeding with the Master Plan and/or the RFP (Request for Proposals).
We have committed to doing a site assessment of Deni House to determine its appropriate use before determining the next steps for residential care in tie conimunity. Once the assessment is done we will convene another meeting with you to review the findings from that work. Please note that this is a priority; we expect the work will be completed by July 2010.
I guess the one problem I have with this is the appearance that our local seniors' will not be consulted in any meaningful way, given there is 18 business days left in July (I don't know of too many people who want to be at meetings on the weekends during the summertime). If Interior Health doesn't consult with seniors' and I don't think it should be left to Mayor Cook to do this as I believe she's not really consulted with seniors' on the Cariboo Lodge file (consultation means you listen to people's concerns and then you act to address their concerns)
I've said this before - there needs to be an annual meeting with the local Williams Lake and District Seniors' Advisory Council and the regional politicians (Rick Mumford/Al Richmond and the 3 Central Cariboo CRD Directors) & Mayor and Council - City of Williams Lake on seniors' issues. This meeting could take place at a Central Cariboo/City of Williams Lake Joint Committee meeting
I have personal knowledge of this watching my grandfather pass away in a hospital bed. Many times, he wanted to be at home but the level of care he required mandated him to stay at Cariboo Memorial Hospital. Clearly, our seniors' need various options to ensure that they get the care they need and this is defintely not from a hospital bed
Seniors' deserve better and it's unfortunate that the politicians - both local/provincial/federal haven't delivered
No comments:
Post a Comment