Ed Jamieson keeps getting passed over by the local health authority for placement in a publicly subsidized care facility
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Ed Jamieson has been stuck in a hospital bed for the past month following a fire at his independent long-term care home in Mission. Family members say they’re frustrated that he keeps getting passed over by the local health authority for placement in a publicly subsidized care facility.
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The fire that damaged Chartwell Carrington House on March 9 forced 142 residents to leave and destroyed many of their personal belongings. Jamieson spent about 45 days at a Chartwell facility in Surrey before being moved to Mission Hospital.
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Carl Jamieson says he has been taking care of his father since he had a stroke in 2013 and has spent about $300,000 on his care, which included bringing him to B.C. from Saskatchewan after he was moved between half a dozen facilities in that province.
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He says he’s done everything he can to support his father.
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“I just simply can’t anymore,” he said. On top of that, he says, it’s not right that his father is “taking somebody else’s hospital bed.”
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“We’re misspending the money. We’re no closer to a solution, and somehow this continues to be OK with this government.”
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The Jamieson family’s case is another illustration of the severe shortage of long-term care beds in the province that Postmedia has documented in recent weeks. Dan Levitt, B.C.’s seniors advocate, has said there are 2,000 fewer beds than needed, a number that is expected to rise to a 16,000-bed shortfall over the next decade
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Carl Jamieson said Chartwell gave the family a discount to place Ed at their facility in Mission 12 years ago. At the time of the fire, he was being charged $625 a month.
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After the fire, Ed Jamieson was given a temporary bed at a dementia facility Chartwell runs in Surrey, despite not having dementia, for a discounted rate of $4,000 a month, as opposed to the $12,000 they usually charge, his son said.
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By the end of April, however, Chartwell could no longer house him and he was moved to Mission Hospital, which Carl says is costing the government an estimated $2,000 a day and taking up space that could be used by someone in greater need.
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Carl said that Fraser Health has assessed Ed and found him eligible for full-time care in a public long-term care facility. But despite being near the top of the list, he keeps getting passed over.
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“By the 18th of March, they had agreed that, ‘Yes, your dad is a candidate for funded living, and he needs full-time care,’” he said.
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“They’ve assured us that Dad is intolerable risk, meaning that he literally has no place to go and cannot live on his own, and therefore is supposedly top of the list. So, I said, ‘Great, what’s taking so long?’ Well, he continues to be passed over by the long-term care places.”
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Health Minister Josie Osborne said that it isn’t as simple as somebody being at the top of the list for long-term care. Instead, people are assessed by their level of need and what long-term care facilities with vacancies can provide.
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She said it is her understanding Fraser Health is working to find Ed Jamieson a place that works for him.
