End of Alberta policy separating seniors from family lauded

Alberta families with elderly relatives in need of care are feeling relief after the province ended an unpopular policy that allowed seniors in care to be housed outside of their community.

"It really stressed a person out quite a bit because youre forever wondering what's going on," said Brenda Lee Raketti, whose parents were sent from Hinton to a Whitecourt centre almost 200 kilometres away in April.

"When youre home, close, at least you can check up on them a little more often and it was hard to hear they were very lonely and there was nothing I could do about it."

On Tuesday Alberta Health Services discarded its first-available-bed policy, which forced hospital patients to accept the first continuing-care space to come open within 100 kilometers of their home.

The policy was an attempt to reduce the number of people in emergency rooms by clearing out seniors who should be in a care facility.

Raketti says her parents were transferred back to Hinton earlier this month.

AHS is now working on a new policy for placing people in continuing-care beds.