The province's Hospital-at-Home program is expanding to include Cowichan District Hospital, Premier David Eby announced after a tour of the CDH last week.
Eby was in Cowichan to announce the expansion of the HaH, meet with a number of groups and to knock on doors with Debra Toporowski, the NDP’s candidate for the Cowichan Valley in the provincial election in October.
The new HaH program at CDH is an internationally recognized model that allows people to receive safe and timely acute-care from their own homes.
The program is designed to improve patient comfort, privacy and independence. The HaH teams include doctors, registered nurses, pharmacists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists, and speech-language pathologists, among others, and other specialists may be provided as needed so care is tailored to a patient’s individual needs.
Examples of patients suitable to receive care through HaH may include those with chronic conditions, such as congestive heart failure or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), patients needing hospital-level treatment for various infections, or other conditions where care would be safe to provide in the home environment.
Launched in April, the CDH’s HaH program is funded to provide 10 beds, and eligible patients must be medically and geographically appropriate for the program.
“People in Cowichan deserve health care that’s accessible and close to family and community,” said Eby. “Expanding the local HaH program gives patients the comfort and convenience of receiving care in their own homes, making it easier to heal and recover with loved ones nearby while still receiving the best care.”
Minister of Health Adrian Dix said that after a successful pilot HaH program in Victoria, the expansion into Cowichan will now ensure that residents in the area will receive comprehensive, team-based care, while simultaneously supporting the health care system.
“We’re committed to growing and strengthening people’s access to high-quality health services, and this is just one way that we are doing so,” he said.
Asked if he felt the NDP could take the Cowichan Valley riding from the B.C. Green Party, whose candidate is Cammy Lockwood after the riding’s current MLA and Green party leader Sonia Furstenau decided to run in the Victoria-Beacon Hill riding, Eby said during his walking tour with Toporowski of Duncan neighbourhoods that success or failure depends on the NDP getting its message out.
He said his government has been working hard developing and backing programs to deal with important issues such as housing, health care and affordability, while the B.C. Conservative Party is looking to increase costs for many in the province in many areas, including insurance costs for young drivers, and making large cuts to health care.
“(Conservative leader) John Rustad wants to cut $4 billion from the province’s health-care system, and that will make very hard to staff the new Cowichan District Hospital when it opens,” he said while knocking on doors with Toporowski.
