A ministry spokesperson says that the government is finishing up the report and that it needs a “thorough analysis.
A group of coroners who looked into deaths last year suggested that the B.C. government look into the possibility of giving out air conditioners during heat waves. However, the deadline for that review has passed.
The panel was convened to look intothe deadly 2021 heat dome in the province where 619 people diedin one week, when temperatures were at record highs.
In its June 2022 reportThe panel suggested that the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Poverty Reduction look into how air conditioners could be used as medical devices through programs already in place in the province, such as theMedical equipment provision program(MEPP), when the heat is very high.
The government was supposed to finish its review by December 1, 2022, after talking to “vulnerable populations.” They were also supposed to make public what they found.
Now, more than three months later, medical and policy experts are wondering why it’s taking B.C. so long to approve the potentially life-saving drug.life-saving policy, given the increasing likelihoodof future heat waves that could kill people and the number of disabled people who don’t have access to cooling devices.
“Air conditioners are a key way to save lives and keep people healthy during heat events,” said Dr. Jennifer Baumbusch, a professor at the nursing school at the University of British Columbia who works with older adults.
“The majority of peoplePeople who died during the heat dome were mostly older adults, many of them women, and many of them were disabled or poor.
Baumbusch says that air conditioners are especially important in British Columbia because a panel found that many people died in small apartments without enough ventilation.
The professor said, “One of the problems is that people don’t always have that much money up front to pay for the air conditioner.”
“I think that our province already has a good way for people to get medical equipment without having to pay for it themselves.
“Adding air conditioners to that list would mean working with vendors to make sure that people could get air conditioners in the same way they get wheelchairs or walkers.”
A spokesperson for the Health Ministry said that the government “had done” an internal policy review on providing cooling devices as medical equipment and that it was being finished up.
When asked why the government missed the Dec. 1 deadline, the spokesperson said, “The ministry is making sure that a thorough analysis and the right kind of engagement are done before the report is finalized.”
During the review, the ministry reached out to other parts of the government, such as Pharmacare, the MEPP, and Fraser Health. The spokesperson also said that vulnerable people were still being consulted.
The representative didn’t say when the review would be out.
A policy analyst questions how fast they can act
The government said that it had looked at programs like the income tax rebate as a possible way to pay for cooling devices. It also said that it had looked at other places, likeOntario— that already have programs that give people who can’t afford them cooling devices.
Gabrielle Peters, a writer and policy analyst with a disability who co-wrotea memo in 2021The province was criticized for taking too long to deal with the problem. The report suggested that cooling devices be made available as medical equipment in Vancouver.
“After the heat dome hit,”Oregon“By the next summer, they had programs to give poor people air conditioners,” she told CBC News.
“Poor people didn’t choose to live in bad, hot housing,” said Peters, who quit the coroners’ death panel because of what she called a lack of urgency.
“The only way they [the B.C. government] can help you is by giving you money.”an alert on your phone.
“They didn’t care about the suffering and poverty of disabled people.”
Peters says that Martha Fineman’s ideas should be used by policymakers.“vulnerability theory”which suggests that everyone is vulnerable and that social institutions either give people the tools they need to be resilient or fail to do so.
In a paper about the issue, Peters wrote, “The challenges of climate change may be a good example of what Fineman’s universal vulnerability approach, which she contrasts with individual rights-based approaches to promote justice, has to offer.”