FEDERAL Health Minister Mark Holland and B.C.’s Health Minister Adrian Dix on Monday announced a bilateral agreement to invest $733 million over the next five years to help British Columbians age with dignity, closer to home, through improved access to home and community care and long-term care (LTC). This funding builds on the $1.2 billion bilateral agreement that was announced with the province in October 2023.
Federal funding will support British Columbia’s five-year action plan to improve health care for seniors. The plan will:
- Expand home and community care services
- Continue to expand and integrate home and community care services for seniors with complex medical conditions and frailty to better meet their needs and help reduce pressures on hospitals and emergency departments.
- Improve the availability of palliative and end-of-life care
- Increase access to palliative and end of life care for people outside hospital settings, enabling them to have these supports in their home, hospice, or community settings.
- Improve the quality of long-term care services
- Improve dementia care through implementation of evidence practice knowledge, standardized education, and monitoring tools.
- Strengthen the appropriateness, safety, and quality of LTC by enabling consistent, appropriate standards of care and oversight of LTC services.
- Support aging in place through connecting frail seniors in their homes to a new outreach program through long-term care providing supports, services and respite care.
- Support the delivery of excellent long-term care through improved long-term care experience for residents, by hiring and training diverse, skilled staff, and enhancing working conditions in LTC facilities.
Progress on these initiatives and broader commitments will be measured against targets which British Columbia will publicly report on annually.
Through this new agreement and the Working Together agreement signed in October 2023, British Columbia will improve how health information is collected, shared, used and reported to Canadians; streamline foreign credential recognition for internationally educated health professionals; and facilitate the mobility of key health professionals within Canada; and fulfill shared responsibilities to uphold the Canada Health Act to protect Canadians’ access to health care that is based on need, not the ability to pay.
Recognizing the significant disparities in Indigenous health outcomes, the Government of Canada and British Columbia also commit to meaningfully engage and work together with Indigenous partners to support improved access to quality and culturally appropriate health care services. British Columbia action plan is informed by continued engagement with its Indigenous partners and recent trilateral discussions involving the federal government. All levels of government will approach health decisions in their respective jurisdictions through a lens that promotes respect and reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples.
British Columbia and the federal government will continue working together to improve access to health services and deliver results for seniors across the province, including responding to the needs of Indigenous and other underserved and disadvantaged populations.
Holland said: “Canadians deserve access to safe and quality health care at every stage of their lives. Through this Aging with Dignity agreement and action plan, together with British Columbia we will help transform the health care system so that no matter where they live, seniors in British Columbia can get the care they deserve.”
Seamus O’Regan Jr., federal Minister for Seniors, said: “Seniors deserve to age with dignity and choice. So they can age on their terms. None of that is possible without a strong health care system. The investments we’re making in BC will make it even stronger.”
Dix said: “As B.C.’s seniors’ population grows rapidly and in some communities at an unprecedented rate, so does the demand for health-care services. The bilateral funding agreement announced today bolsters B.C.’s investments to meet that need in the short and long term by improving access to high-quality, safe, dignified home and community care, palliative and end-of-life care as well as long-term care services for seniors and their families. I look forward to partnering with the federal government to ensure that B.C.’s seniors can age in dignity at home and to continue our collaboration in bettering the health and well-being of people in B.C.”
Harwinder Sandhu, B.C.’s Parliamentary Secretary for Seniors’ Services and Long-Term Care, said: “People in our province deserve to know that their governments are working together to ensure that seniors can access quality health care that are vital to their wellbeing as they age, close to home. By continually expanding access to the home and community care services and long-term care that people in B.C. need, we are making senior care in our communities stronger and better so our seniors can live healthier lives and age gracefully surrounded by their loved ones.”
British Columbia’s 5-year Aging with Dignity Agreement and Action Plan can be found here.
