Provincial hospitals are increasingly putting up homeless patients in acute care beds because they have no place else to go, according to data from British Columbia's Ministry of Health.
The data, obtained by the Opposition New Democrats, shows that hospitals have been increasingly converting beds into a form of social housing over the past decade.
Although the patients no longer need hospitalization and would normally be discharged, health care professionals are giving them the designation of "alternative level of care."
Homelessness, inadequate housing and other problems related to housing and economic circumstances are given as reasons for keeping patients at the hospital.
Each acute care bed costs about $1000 a day, said NDP health critic Adrian Dix.
"When we talk about the costs of housing, there's also the costs of not providing housing -- this is clearly one of those costs," Dix said Sunday.
Comparing the number of patients staying in such beds in 2001-02 versus 2008-09 reveals an increase of 192 per cent, from 154 to 458 beds. The rise for homeless patients alone went from 18 to 88 beds in the same time frame, a jump of 388 per cent.
Dix blames cost-cutting by the B.C. Liberals for the trend.
"When you don't provide adequate services in the community, frequently those problems come back to you through the emergency room in the hospital or, in many cases, through the criminal justice system," he said.
"Prevention is always less expensive than dealing with these issues after the fact."
The government should follow the lead of many other provinces and implement a larger anti-poverty plan and coherent housing strategy to address the need, Dix argued.
"They will find if they do that, that there are positive implications. Not just for society in the reduction of inequality, but for government in real cost reductions."
