Will care facility close?
Mary Thompson had settled into the Desert Valley Care facility on February 8, after her daughter, who lives in Penticton, moved her up from an assisted living facility in Langley so the two could be closer. However, two days later she was informed she would have to seek a facility elsewhere.
I don't know where I'm going to go, Thompson said last Wednesday.
Thompson is among the six residents and 10 staff (seven casual and three full-time employees) of the privately-owned Desert Valley Care facility who received notification February 10 that the owners would be closing the doors by the end of the month.
The facility's owners blame a lack of anticipated government funding for the closure, but said Friday that they were in discussions with Interior Health to get some funding and keep the facility open.
Care worker Arttemus Baldwin has been at the intermediate and long-term care facility since April of 2005, and as a full-time employee since September. She said she and the other employees were upset to learn about the loss of their jobs, but their primary concern is for the welfare of the residents.
These people are like family to me. I do as much for these people as I do for my own kids. Where are they going to go with just two weeks notice? Baldwin wondered.
The staff here is phenomenal; they really and truly care about the residents. Our oldest resident is 95 and he has told us that he wants to live here for the rest of his life. Where will he go now? This is his home, Baldwin said.
The facility's six residents range in age from 85 to 95, and all require varying levels of care as they are coping with a number of illnesses.
Lois Kitchen, who has been employed at the facility since January 2003, agreed the elderly are the main issue of concern. She also insisted that she did not have hard feelings toward the facility's owners.
I think it's a shame, and I feel terrible for the people living here. But I understand from the owners it's a financial decision, Kitchen said.
Joe-Ann Tessier, another Desert Valley Care employee said she also understood the facility had been struggling since the doors first opened in October 2002. Tessier said her hours varied according to the number of residents in the facility.
Don Millward, one of the facility's owners, stated in a letter written last Thursday on behalf of the Desert Valley Care facility directors, that the decision to close Desert Valley Care February 28 was regrettable.
Millward explained the owners completed the facility and opened its doors three years ago, with the belief the provincial government would step up with some funding for beds in Osoyoos.
They had stated that they were planning to assist the private sector of B.C. with subsidies for up to 5,000 new beds in the province, which gave us the incentive, Millward said.
Very quickly, we learned that no government subsidies were forthcoming, and naturally, no abundance of residents appeared, willing to pay that which is required to keep a private enterprise such as this going.rnMillward went on to state that it costs upwards of $130 dollars a day (approximately $4,000 per month) to care for people in institutions such as Sagebrush Lodge, the Interior Health managed facility that also announced recently they would be closing in approximately two years time, once a new and bigger privately-owned facility is built.
We were hard pressed to charge half that much. Is it no wonder that, without assistance, we were going to have difficulty achieving success?rnHe added the directors have been paying out upwards of $60,000 per year to pay the shortfall in wages.
This type of enterprise could work, but not for investors and not without government subsidy, Millward stated.
Owner Gord Zelko said he and the other owners are hoping for a different outcome, but did not want to give the facility's residents and staff any false hope.
We're in discussions with Interior Health and we're working with them to try to find a solution. We're expediting this as quickly as we can, said owner Gord Zelko.
We would like to keep this facility going and are making every effort to do so, and Interior Health is attempting to accommodate our needs. If that works, then everyone will be kept in place.
Zelko clarified that February 28 was not a 'final' date for everybody to leave the facility. He said if all the residents have not found a place to go by that date, they would not be thrown out onto the street.
We will help them try to find a location, but without funding, we can't keep the facility ongoing because we don't have the financial resources, said Zelko.
Surely with Premier Campbell's promise of 5,000 beds, I would think that some of those beds would be allocated to this area.
Hopefully because of where we're at, the government will come to aid us. When we have a continuous waiting list at Sagebrush Lodge, it doesn't make any sense that more funded beds aren't available.
