B.C. invests millions on plan to improve end-of-life care

VANCOUVER – The B.C. government is investing millions to provide warm, compassionate send-offs to people at the end of their lives.

Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid has announced an action plan aimed at providing quality palliative care so people can spend their last days in their homes or in their communities.

She says the government is giving nearly $1 million to complete a brightly-lit, spacious hospice in Vancouver that will provide six beds for the dying, along with comfortable rooms for them to spend time with their families.

The government is also providing $2 million to the Marion Hospice in Vancouver, $3 million to the Peace Arch Hospice in White Rock and $2 million more to Canuck Place Children’s Hospice.

Another $2 million will be spent on creating a centre of excellence on end-of-life care to conduct research and education and develop standards of practice that will be used around the province.

The government says that about one-third of the 30,000 British Columbians who died last year passed away in a residential care facility.