A new report from the Office of the Seniors Advocate highlights growing wait times for seniors’ services across the province, including in Northeast BC.
The report shows seniors in the Northern Health region face some of the longest wait times for major surgeries in the province.
Wait times average 11.4 weeks for cataract surgery, 53.7 weeks for knee replacement, and 31.4 weeks for hip replacement. Longer wait times have also led to lower surgical volumes compared to other regions.
In Northern Health, seniors wait an average of 369 days to be placed into long-term care, which is the highest in BC.
Patients waiting to be transferred from hospital to long-term care wait on average 152 days, which is also the longest in the province. This often contributes to hospital overcrowding.
Larry Neufeld, MLA for the South Peace region, says seniors in the North are being left behind.
“Families are facing a two-year wait to access Rotary Manor. Residents are deeply concerned and asking: where do we send our parents in the meantime?” he said.
In Northern Health, the typical wait for seniors receiving subsidized housing was about 10 months over the past two years.
The Northern Health region saw the highest rate of fall-related hospitalizations at 7,738 per 100,000 people. However, it recorded the lowest fall rate in registered assisted living, at 19 falls per 100 units.
The report says baby boomers are now between 62 and 80 years old, adding the BC population grew by 44 per cent over the past 10 years.
Across the province, the long-term care waitlist has more than double since 2020.
“The Seniors Advocate’s latest report makes it crystal clear: there are massive disparities in access to care across British Columbia, and rural communities are being left behind,” said Brennan Day, MLA for Courtenay-Comox.
Day, the critic for seniors and rural health, says rural BC is being ignored, adding the NDP government continues to turn a blind eye to the growing seniors care crisis.
“Not only are there large gaps in services now, but we are failing to plan how we will deliver more care in the next decade,” the report found, adding demand for essential services will continue to increase as more people become seniors.