Holding Granny and Gramps hostage on the North Coast

The always controversial topic of the Acropolis Manor replacement is back on the front burner, as Northern Health ponders its options for replacing a building that should actually no longer be in existence. Originally scheduled to be replaced in 2005, the project is already one year behind schedule and actual construction for a new care facility for our seniors now isn’t planned until 2007 or even 2008.

As if that isn’t discouraging enough for the long suffering residents of the North Coast, it appears that the project is now about to become a political hot potato, as the BCGEU warns locals of dire problems with the P3 (public-private) partnership model, one of the ideas apparently being considered by Northern Health.

It seems rather hard to believe that things have fallen off the rails as much as they seem to, with a much needed replacement building still in the developmental phase rather than the building phase. Local seniors long tired of excuses and political bafflegab will surely reach for their high blood pressure meds if this thing becomes a protracted struggle between governments, local health boards an unions.

Perhaps the stake holders in this project will take the advice of Councillor Tony Briglio who suggests that they take a pass on the P3 model for this project, having waited long enough to develop this project it does not need any further delays.

One hopes that the entire project gets a fast track and a smooth one at that, the folks most in need of a new facility have been left holding the bag for far too long.

For full details on the latest twist to the Acropolis Manor story, we offer up the Daily news coverage of it from Thursday April 6.

UNION SOUNDS OFF OVER NH ACROPOLIS OPTIONS
By James Vassallo
The Daily News
Thursday, April 6, 2006
Pages One and Three

One of the province’s largest unions is warning Northern Health to turn away from any offer of public-private partnerships (P3s) to build a replacement complex-care facility to replace Acropolis Manor.

“Residents of Prince Rupert beware what the health authority has up their sleeves regarding Acropolis Manor,” said Stephen Howard, B. C. Government Employees Union spokesperson. “We think it’s a tragic mistake the health authority is going to make if they’re going to consider building health facilities as P3s”

Howard was responding to comments made by Northern Health chair Jeff Burghardt at a meeting on the oft-delayed replacement facility last month.

“We will in fact call for proposals for assisted living units and we will ask if there are any private proposals for the facility construction and financing.” said Burghardt at the time. “I don’t know that there will be anything successful on that front, but we have an awful lot of capital needs within Northern Health and if there are any opportunities to assist in delivering the care in the matter we have envisioned, we will consider those.

“We are going to consider those whether it is any complex care project or whether it be any type of major rebuild or reconstruction of any facility throughout all of Northern Health.”

Howard said the desire for P3s is not coming from NH, but from the provincial government who doesn’t want to lay out the money for development costs.

“We realize the Northern Health Authority is only doing what they’re told to do and their position is driven by their political masters in Victoria,” he said. “We think the money is available, it’s a question of a government driven more by ideology than by common sense.

“If we are truly worried about spending valuable health care resources then we should learn from the examples, spending money on private-public partnerships is the last thing we’d do.

A number of studies have been released over the last several years claiming P3s are yielding disastrous results. In an April 2003 study printed in the British Medical Association Journal, an analysis of P3s in Scotland’s health care system found “service delivery had been reduced across the health district associated with P3 hospital development” and there is evidence of an independent ‘P3 effect’ on hospital downsizing and bed reductions, which in the health district affected, has resulted in severe capacity constraints across all acute specialties.”

In March 2005, the Ontario Health Coalition released Flawed, Failed, Abandoned: 100 P3s, Canadian and International Evidence providing examples in a host of sectors from across Canada, as well as in Australia, England, Scotland and Wales, that showed a litany of cost overruns, legal disputes, bankruptcies, environmental disasters and shoddy construction. One major concern for locals is that P3 may lead to more delays on the Acropolis replacement, which was originally supposed to be completed in late 2005 and is now slated to be built by late 2007 or early 2008.

“What we’re seemingly doing, because we want to hang on to the capital we’re going to partner with others to build these facilities so we can rent them back,” said Tony Briglio, city councilor and chair of the North Coast Health Advisory Committee, at the same health meeting,”I guess I with my (banking) background I kind of like to own the house that I live in.”

“I can’t help thinking that’s one of the reasons that health care costs seemingly are increasing, are increasing on the operating side because part of that component is to pay rent as opposed to pay for the doctors or pay for the nurses,” said Briglio.

“Let’s forget about the P3 on this one because we’ve been waiting long enough on this to delay it for one more hour. We should move on, there’s the money there now.”

Burghardt said this current model of health care delivery has only been active in B. C. for five years and there’s room for a valid public discussion about it, however that discussion wouldn’t likely be with Northern Health. He added that any review of private funding would be completed very quickly.

Presently, a site preparation tender for Acropolis is expected in May, a project brief will be sent to interested bidders in June and a construction tender given out in July.