VICTORIA - The first provincial review of British Columbia's publicly funded long-term care sector shows for-profit operators made 12 times more money than their not-for-profit counterparts but paid their employees much lower wages.
Seniors' advocate Isobel Mackenzie says for-profit care homes failed to deliver over 200,000 hours of care to seniors, but not-for-profits gave 80,000 additional hours beyond what they were funded to provide.
She called on health authorities to better monitor care hours, tighten financial oversight and create a more transparent system that puts the onus on operators to return money they haven't used to pay their employees.
Mackenzie says care aides in for-profit homes can earn up to $6.35 less per hour than the standard wage while operators complain of retention and recruitment problems.
She has issued a report saying taxpayers annually shell out $1.3 billion in costs for the contracted care sector that requires more transparency.
More than 27,000 seniors in B.C. live in one of 300 publicly funded long-term care homes that are owned and operated by health authorities, private companies and not-for-profit societies.