Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) board members and senior leadership met in Powell River last week to participate in an open forum with the public on Thursday, October 27. Board chair Kip Woodward accompanied VCH president and CEO Mary Ackenhusen and Karin Olson, chief operating officer for Coastal Community of Care, to meetings in and around the community.
About 100 people attended the forum, where Ackenhusen reported on the results of a recent independent assessment and accreditation of health care at Powell River General Hospital, which she said was “amazing.”
In her assessment of the state of overall health care under VCH’s authority, Ackenhusen said the public bears some responsibility for being willing to put up with the current state of care in the province.
“We’ve been quite accepting, I believe,” said Ackenhusen. “We’ve been accepting that we can’t get a [general practitioner], we’ve been accepting that it takes nine months to get an MRI and we’ve been accepting of a lot of things that maybe we shouldn’t be.”
That was the point of the meeting, according to Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons; to give the Powell River community an opportunity to raise the issues that are not acceptable.
Questions about food quantity and quality at Evergreen Care Unit and Willingdon Creek Village were raised and addressed by Olson, who said that was the main focus during her visit.
According to Olson, VCH’s food contractor, Sodexo, is working very closely with VCH to improve the food service situation.
“We’ve brought it up to a foundational level that we can say people are receiving food that is better quality, more appealing and provides some foundation for moving forward,” said Olson.
According to Olson, the food has changed, the approach of the staff has changed and the food service provided by Sodexo is not the same as when reports of incidents of food shortages at both residences came to public attention in September. Those included an incident when several residents were served Boost, a nutritional energy drink, as a meal.
Olson said there were a number of reasons for the general inadequacies in the food service, including a change in Sodexo management.
“They brought new people in and that was happening anyway,” she said, adding that VCH had to take some accountability, too, because there had not been a VCH dietician in Powell River to work with Sodexo. That situation has now been resolved and a new dietician has been recruited, she said.
Olson said VCH and Sodexo are also looking at how local sourcing of food could be used.
Simons said that is an idea he wants to pursue with Olson.
“It’s something the community here would be very interested in helping to pilot,” said Simons. “We could be an example for other communities.”
Some people in attendance said the bigger issue underlying the problems at Willingdon Creek and Evergreen was staff shortages.
Lisa Davidson’s father is in Willingdon Creek.
“In my dad’s care facility, I believe there are 17 residents,” said Davidson. “They have two care aides and one nurse.”
She said she and others who have family members in the residences have had to take on responsibilities of caring for their family members because of the lack of staff to go around.
Maureen Simmonds is 82 and said she is caring for her 87-year-old husband, who has dementia, is blind and hard of hearing, at home.
“It’s scary,” said Simmonds. “Sometimes I wake up in the morning and think, ‘Oh no, not another day.’ But I’m not letting him go in there. I’ll take care of him for as long as I can, but that’s another problem. I’m 82. How much longer can I do that?”
