Yukon NDP questions $35 a day fee for hospital patients

Yukon NDP health critic Jan Stick wants to know why long-term care patients stuck in acute care hospital beds are being charged a $35-a-day fee like the one charged at continuing care facilities.

She raised the issue during a two-hour sessionThursdaywhere Yukon Hospital Corporation chair Craig Tuton and CEO Jason Bilsky appeared before the legislative assembly.

I'm really troubled by this $35perdiem. I don't think it's fair.- NDP health critic Jan Stick

Stick said she understood that 30 per cent of the territory's acute care hospital beds are devoted to long-term care patients who are waiting for beds in long-term care facilities, such as Copper Ridge or the Thomson Centre.

"What is being done to meet the needs of those individuals, who are not acute care, in terms of daily routines, like getting up in the morning, getting street clothes on, instead of staying in your pyjamas, socialization, exercise, social activities?

"The longer individuals stay in an acute care without those extra supports, their health tends to deteriorate, and their well-being, An acute care hospital is not a place for people who don't need acute care."

Tuton told the legislature that it's an ongoing concern, one that involves the department of health as well.

"We don't turn away people at the door, so when obvious needs appear, we have to find ways to accommodate those needs.

"We have a team that is made up of doctors, as well as the department, to look at bed allocation and to look at what the options are. We're working with the department constantly, to try to come to solutions."

Jason Bilsky said when it comes to care plans, "I absolutely agree, it should be the right care in the right place, for the right person.

"(It's) a real issue across Canada, and even more of an issue down south...ensuring that these patients are in proper facilities where they can receive the right care. I will be the first one to admit that those that do not require acute care but require other forms of care should not be in the hospital. We do the best that we can."

Stick wanted to know why patients occupying those beds are also charged a $35 aday, similar to what is charged at continuing care facilities.

"The person in continuing care would receive social activities, crafts, music programs, outings with other individuals, a room of their own, where they have their own furnishings, a sense of community.The hospital isn't actually providing continuing care at the level that is probably required."I have a real difficulty with the per diem," she said.

"There's a difference between occupying a bed in an acute care hospital and being at the Thomson Centre or Macauley Lodge or Copper Ridge... and I don't think the two are comparable. So I'm really troubled by this $35per diem. I don't think it's fair."

Bilsky replied that the cost of providing care in an acute care bed is probably two to four times that of a bed at a long term care facility.

"We're working very hard to ensure that we're providing a standard of care that's the best that we can do in that scenario," he said.

Tuton said the per diem was not a hospital corporation policy, but instead a legislated fee.

Stick said she would pursue the topic, at a future date in the legislature.