I wonder at times, just who is Home Support services supposed to help?
If the Patient is lucky enough to have an in home caregiver, then I suppose Home Support serves a dual purpose.
It allows for a brief respite for that Caregiver, as well as for the Patient, in providing services like washing, cleaning, etc.
Thing is, what about those who have no regular caregiver, such as a Son or Daughter, who lives there?
Today’s Health Services are greatly stretched, but are we using what resources we have, efficiently?
The longer we have in home support from Beacon Community Services, the more I wonder if perhaps the Government has too quickly abdicated its responsibility, under the guise of saving money.
Can a private organization actually provide better service than a Government run agency?
What about accountability?
This is the problem today, not just in Home Support, Health Care, but in all aspects of our lives. We have suddenly gone from having a Government that provides services to the Citizens, to one that simply PAY FOR THOSE SERVICES. Take the Food Industry. CIFA has no teeth anymore, and as a result we have much more food recalls than when Government OVERSAW the entire Industry.
Is this also not what is happening to our Health Care System?
When was the last time that VIHA officials actually called on some of those patients, to check up on the care they have been receiving from Beacon Community Services?
I have never received a visit, in over 2½ years. Consider that the taxpayer pays approximately $37 per hour of service. In two years, Mom has received a minimum of 912 hours of service. That equals about $33,744.00 in taxpayer money. Doesn’t it just seem prudent, and proper to check up to insure that all that money was wisely spent? And if you consider it, the Gross return on that money is 50% to Beacon, based on them only paying about $20 an hour for their employees.
So here is a private NON PROFIT company receiving about $15,000.00 for one old lady’s home support care over the last 2½ years. Doesn’t it make sense to be checking up on that?
I don’t know, all these so called Conservatives, like Christie Clark, Stephen Harper, talk a good game about fiscal responsibility, and yet they seem unconcerned about the companies they have hired to provide services to us. They are unconcerned about checking up on them, on insuring that these private firms are actually adhering to their contracts.
I don’t know, but to me that just seems the exact opposite of what a so called Fiscal Conservative should be doing.