Relatives of B.C. long-term care residents threaten legal action against province | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
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Relatives of B.C. long-term care residents threaten legal action against province

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Legal action has been threatened against the B.C. government on behalf of relatives trying to help their loved ones in long-term care.

A letter was sent to the province today, Dec. 17, after lawyers failed to get any response to an earlier request to meet and try to resolve their differences.

“In the present circumstances, we consider that our clients and their loved ones have a strong basis for establishing a violation of their rights under s. 7 of the Charter,” the letter from the Vancouver law firm Nathanson, Schachter & Thompson LLP.

They represent relatives of residents living in long-term care and assisted living facilities throughout B.C.

“Our clients are seeking urgent remedies to the harms being suffered by them and their loved ones as a result of visitation restrictions imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which include harm to physical and mental health, to dignity and to quality of life of their loved ones and related harms to themselves,” the letter states.

It goes on to say the families would much rather negotiate a quick resolution to their concerns rather than take further legal action.

At issue are the restrictions on two types of visitors allowed into facilities when they are not dealing with active COVID-19 outbreaks.

Under orders issued by provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, essential visitors are allowed in to help with the care of their relatives, as are social visitors.d

But the rules around how frequent those visits can be, for how long and even if they’re allowed at all are unclear and inconsistently administered, the letter states.

They single out the Interior Health region as one that is “mandating what may arguably be more stringent restrictions.”

They want, first of all, clarification of the meaning of essential and social visits in provincial policy.

Secondly, they want clear direction given to health regions and individual operators so the visitor policy is actually carried out. That includes visits in rooms.

They also want the policy amended so both essential and social visitors can be allowed for each resident and they want health authorities to do more testing.

While the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines is good news, some of these residents are in the last weeks or days of their lives so families cannot wait for everyone to be vaccinated, the letter states, calling for immediate action.

The lawyers said there’s no evidence that visits have resulted in “material COVID-19 transmission events” in any care facility.

“From a legal perspective, the existing isolation and visitation limits in long-term care and assisted living arguably violate the security of the person and liberty rights of residents of care homes and the rights of their families including our clients,” the letter states. “Our clients are seeking urgent action to mitigate or rectify those violations.”

 - This story was corrected at 12:45 p.m. on Dec. 17, 2020 to clarify the name of the law firm.

_ This story was corrected at 7:30 a.m. on Dec. 18, 2020 to clarify this is a threat of legal action.


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