By Spencer Sterritt

B.C. seniors advocate says local care homes won’t change despite being run by Chinese gov’t

Mar 6, 2018 | 2:09 PM

NANAIMO — B.C.’s seniors advocate says families and patients are right to be troubled about several residential care homes in the province now being run by the Chinese government, but reassured people the care received won’t change.

“We have no evidence that things are going to go off the rails,” advocate Isobel Mackenzie told NanaimoNewsNOW. “We do have measures in place so that we know if things start going off the rails and we have the power to go in and fix them.”

Two care homes in the area, the Nanaimo Seniors Village and Stanford Seniors Village in Parksville, are run by Retirement Concepts, a company which was controversially bought by the Chinese company Anbang Insurance Group in 2017. Retirement Concepts ran 20 homes in B.C., equalling nearly 2,000 beds which are funded by provincial health authorities.

At the time, the Federal Liberals faced severe push back from health unions, advocates and the public over the sale, which was exacerbated when the insurance group was then seized by the Chinese government after their chairman was accused of financial crimes.

Mackenzie said she doesn’t want families and patients to worry about the care they receive, since the residential care homes now owned by the Chinese government will still have to follow B.C. regulations.

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“Whether (they’re) owned by the government, a non-profit society, a private company or a foreign government, we don’t have any evidence to suggest one leads to a bad outcome.”

While there are “robust” regulations about health and safety, Mackenzie said things get “sketchy” when rules or regulations are technically being followed but aren’t up to the satisfaction of patients, such as food being properly stored and prepared but not being very good, or a nurse following proper procedures but being unkind or harsh while doing it.

She said the distance between anyone bringing up these issues and head office is a legitimate concern.

“I think it’s understandable people feel their voice won’t get heard as directly by the people who can fix the problem,” she said. “More and more in today’s world we have to go to the person who goes to the person who goes to the person.”

Mackenzie said the concerns from the Hospital Employees’ Union, over profits being pulled from the care homes to cover other company and governmental costs, were warranted.

Jennifer Whiteside, secretary and business manager of the union, told NanaimoNewsNOW they’re especially concerned about staffing levels and the Chinese government seeing a bottom line instead of people’s lives.

It’s a major concern at the Stanford Seniors Village, which Whiteside said is already “operating with a chronic staffing deficit. We need to make sure that situation isn’t exacerbated.”

There were protests last summer at Stanford over a lack of available staff and too much overtime, which residents said was affecting their level of care.

Both Whiteside and Mackenzie called for further surveys of residential care homes, with Mackenzie saying the province needed to make sure their money was being spent appropriately.

“I think we’re going to get to the point where we don’t just go in and make sure you adhere to licensing standards, which are about health and safety. We’re going to go in and make sure the $1.2 billion we’re giving this industry is being spent the way they tell us it’s being spent.”

Retirement Concepts said in a statement “This temporary change in management at Anbang will not impact the operations of Retirement Concepts, its staff or residents. Retirement Concepts communities are provincially regulated and we are required to report out monthy to ensure we meet the highest standards to residents and this will not change.”

spencer@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit