B.C.’s Health Minister says he expects that all care homes and assisted living facilities in the province will have safety plans in place by next week.
The plans are needed before visitors will be allowed inside after the province eased restrictions at the end of June, and Adrian Dix says 88 per cent of facilities – 513 out of 584 – so far have plans in place.
“I would expect that people should be receiving visits. Obviously, its not the visits that everybody wants. Its short visits on a weekly basis in care homes that have had for a number of weeks, visits in place,” he said. “It’s our expectation that plans will be in place. Its the reason we started slow.”
Dix says most of the 71 facilities yet to complete a plan are assisted living facilities, where residents have fewer needs and more freedom, compared to residents in long term care homes.
He adds there are concerns around some people still not being allowed to visit their loved ones, but he noted they started slow to keep everyone safe.
“One visitor, one designated visitor, always the same visitor per resident, and it reflected the resources that people have,” Dix said. “And working with all of the people in the sector, we hope to expand that out in a safe way, in the coming months, but we have to do it slowly and surely.”
Dix also says the province had already given funding to care homes, adding it is in the process of providing the $160 million it promised last month to help homes manage in-person visits.
On June 30 we announced the easing of restrictions for visitors at long-term care+assisted living homes in #BC.
As of this week, there are 513, or 88%, of facilities have safety plans in place.
— Adrian Dix (@adriandix) July 31, 2020
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