VANCOUVER – While the B.C. Liberals question the connection between poverty and health, their own documents show how homelessness, insufficient housing and income disparity are Adrian Dixcontributing to rising hospitalization rates and health care costs, New Democrat health critic Adrian Dix said today.
“Ministry of Health data show that the B.C. Liberals’ failure to implement a coherent housing strategy and larger poverty reduction plan is compounding pressure on the acute care hospital system, leading to increased costs, longer wait times, and risks for patients,” said Dix.
“Government documents show that over the greater part of this past decade, hospitals have had to convert more and more beds into a form of social housing, as the number of people who cannot be discharged because of difficulties related to income, lack of housing or insufficient housing has risen by close to 200 per cent.”
These patients fall under the ‘Alternative Level of Care’ category. ALC patients no longer require acute care, but remain in acute care beds. For examples, seniors who remain in hospital beds because of a lack of long term care beds in the community are ALC patients.
A breakdown of the data reveals patients who were ALC due to homelessness increased 388 per cent between 2001 and 2009, due to inadequate housing, 194 per cent, due to economic circumstances, 163 per cent.
“These figures show how increasing income disparity, homelessness and substandard housing have added more pressure on acute care hospitals. They also lend more proof that a real concerted approach to reducing poverty and poor housing will be required to bend the cost curve on health care costs while improving the health of the overall population,” said Dix.
Dix noted that the figures likely do not capture the full story, because the government has shifted the definition of ALC to lower the figures.
B.C.’s Auditor General has been among those to decry the B.C. Liberals’ failure to present a housing plan for the province. The B.C. Liberals have also failed to introduce a comprehensive poverty reduction plan.
Dix questioned how Rich Coleman, the Solicitor General and Housing Minister, could continue to believe that housing and poverty does not affect health status and health care costs when his own government’s data demonstrates this relationship.
In a letter to Burnaby Deer Lake MLA Kathy Corrigan, Coleman stated that historically, this linkage between poverty and health is not well-established. Coleman made this claim despite the fact that the B.C. Liberals' own “Conversation on Health” report and studies that they have commissioned find there is overwhelming evidence that poverty causes poor health.
“Improving housing and reducing poverty were among the key advice given to the government on how to stabilize health care costs and improve outcomes during the Conversation on Health,“ said Dix.
The Carole James New Democrats are calling for a comprehensive poverty reduction plan, and are committed to enhancing public services to support the health and quality of life of B.C. families.