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Where should Ontario’s 30,000 new long-term beds go?

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22 Comments
  • W. R. Prince MD, FRCSC. says:

    I have been on numerous committees of the LHINS, MHLTC, MH and others fro over the past 50 years and the only thing that I can report is that I feel that the ministry uses committees to slow down progress. The first committee was to take 2 1/2 months and went on for over three years and finally the ministry agreed with me and the committee that Oakville needed more long term beda and we did get them but slowly over about 20 years by which time the need had increased considerably. The latest committee submitted it’s report to the ministry over two years ago and the report has never been acknowledged. It also suggested that many more chronic care/long term beds were needed. Most of the time on these committees, I was the only one not being paid for my help. We do not need more committees but rather action on the multiple reports tha we (I) have produced.

  • Amanda Jeffs says:

    SARS was 17 years ago and we knew of the four bed wards then.
    It’s neglect bordering on murder to have these four bed wards.
    Worked in Chartwell Aurora
    Resthaven for 40 years!!
    RN
    Management

  • Julie Chisholm says:

    We need to stop allowing multinationals to profit from our seniors. no more “for profit” LTC homes should be allowed.

  • Josefina Estrabillo says:

    While all was written about nursing care-retirement-long term care beds/just want to add about the hours-time requires for another very important dept/and normally forgotten/DIETARY DEPARTMENT.Time and time again/or years and years,time allotted to dietary department has not changed in the last 8 years or so/yet demands-expectations increases and increases.Dietary staff(at least where I am),do come earlier or leave a lot later than their scheduled shifts,to ensure their job are fully done-i.e. thicken fluids-3 kinds of everything from milk/water/juice/nutritional supplement,nectar-honey-pudding like consistency.Lately with budget increase,nectar-honey consistency on milk/water/juice ,we are able to purchase.One staff had develop carpal tunnel syndrome.It is hope that next increase of hours will be on dietary department.

  • ovaltine28 says:

    When our new Alberta Government came to power in 2015, we had had 40 years of conservatism here – and we were short 6,000 long term care beds. Read Parkland Institute’s publication “From Bad to Worse” (2013) and it’s sequel “Losing Ground” (2016).

  • BONITA says:

    We seem to forget that we are dealing with human life here. There is no algorithm that will fit this. I understand the need to have a budget however how would you personally feel whwn youe mom and dad only receive care based on a rhythm this is truly absurd. Get rid of the people at the top and you will have money to provide care. The focus is wrong it’s on revamping. It should be looking from the bottom up. I left long term care because I felt all I did was push pills and chart on most days it was 1 to 2 hours of my own time, charting, meeting’ s and organizing your day and or the next day. Not enough staff in long term care now for many years!!! This is not new problem it is an old problem resurfacing..You need to talk to the people who are holding the position of direct care. PSW’s RPN’S & RN’S we know the the care and what is needed. And please please decrease all the paper work and monitoring

  • BONITA says:

    I would like to start a Long Term / Palliative care place. Something small in size. I’ve worked long term care and hospital. There is a need for beds in Oxford/Perth counties . I’m registered nurse, lay minister. Where do I go to apply ?
    What do I need to apply?
    My email is bonitav @rocketmail.com

  • Vera-D. says:

    Please stop using Halton as a success story. It’s a shambles. What they do here is two things, dump the care on families and elderly spouses and not factor those costs into the equation. So no, it does not cost a lot less to support people at home. You just leave out the cost of daughters leaving jobs to do the care or the cost of an elderly spouse’s health being destroyed. They say now that caregivers’ telomeres are shortened, so they will in all likelihood not live as long. My 80+ tiny neighbour was expected to support a stroke-Alzheimer’s patient twice her size with the “support” of one bath a week. Then you also have a huge proliferation of full-pay “memory care” fancy-shmancy homes springing up all over Halton to take advantage of the years long waiting list for beds. These homes, that are basically making people pay for their own health-care, seem to be the way of the future. You have extremely sick people as the norm in all the “retirement” homes in Oakville paying huge amounts of money for care because the number of beds here is so low.

  • Marianne Williams says:

    I am very supportive of the care options that permit healthy seniors to stay out of hospitals and LTC. I am not in favour of leaving care givers to live an unpaid and uneducated psw’s. At this time the respite care options are very limited. The care giver is assigned to be a care giver without the supports needed. Care giver care needs expansion and so does the professional staff that will do that work.

  • LISE says:

    I know that staffing issues have always been a problem every day that I’ve worked. You see I’m the type that has work ethics which means nothing in today’s world. I’m used to working short as it’s an everyday occurrence at one level or another. This means I’ve had to pick up the slack in which means my workload would increase up to double what I was hired for. In one particular scenario: often times I would end up on days being responsible for 100 residents and often this may have included doctor’s days and orders because the other RN was sick and we couldn’t replace and overtime was not authorized but yet I was made responsible for 100 plus two RPN and 12 psw’s. Also, when I was responsible for 100 people and an RN plus RPN would be sick on the same floor with no replacement and not short enough to pull from another floor I’ve also had to do on top of my job function RPN (pass meds plus treatments)- often time you could even add one or two PSW’s that also called in sick. There was no extra pay for wearing so many hats and not even a thank you for holding it together. – Many facilities are in serious need of renovations and don’t even think they would pass inspections but yet the LHIN or the MOH pass them or they inform the facility that they are coming. I do believe that there’s corruption at the LHIN level and at the MOH as they don’t really care or see what’s happening, and or they do and close a blind eye. Many places hire new grads or immigrants that don’t even speak English because it’s cheaper but they don’t stay. Retention is poor with no incentives for anyone.

    I know someone else will take credit for what I’ve said for years now to bring a positive change: I’ve always said that if your going to renovate then add a 5 bed pod for acute care beds to decrease the amount of ‘send to hospital’- with this acute care pod would include telemetry and acute care/ emerg nurses- there’s always a Dr on call, x-rays are now portable, blood work can be done stat, there’s physio, now even mental health assessments are outsourced and done as well, plus maids, and conscious sedation… and so utilize what we have because let’s face it that the acuity in LTC is very high. I do know that this can be successful as family and residents don’t want to go to the hospital and this would be a better alternative than going to be sent to a hospital to be on a stretcher for 6 hours to even be seen or assessed only to be sent back with nothing being done and in my experience the hospital(s) don’t even fill the discharge from hospital form and not even v.s. done prior to leaving the hospital. No, follow up…nothing and so, basically it was an ambulance ride to the hospital and return either the same way or ambutrans, or family brings the resident back. The only thing that can’t be done in an LTC facility is surgery or Hemodialysis.

    These seniors are now orphans, widowers and we are mandated to give them a comfortable end of life care as possible.

    • Kathy Pearsall says:

      “Quality is improving every year,” according to the industry. Right. This is pure propaganda. In truth, it has never been worse than it is right now, and is about to become really horrendous unless we change everything about long-term care, right now. The government should hold a round table to get other voices around the table, other than continuing to pander to the big corporations.

  • Kathy Pearsall says:

    We are all sick of this narrative. Show some leadership, for God’s sake.

  • Wendy Renault says:

    regarding 30,000 beds, great discussion, interesting ideas–many people would like to access assisted living &/or retirement home living, but are unable to afford this–we also need creative thinking for congregate type living with supports that respects privacy, that is affordable (ODSP/or other guaranteed basic incomes like OAS). I love the idea of village as a person transitions through various levels of need for care.

  • Lynne Joly-Crichton says:

    Without a doubt, Long term care facilities need an RN on all shifts. The residents have mulltiple diagnosis, behaviors, palliative care, intravenous medications , dressings, feeding tube, colostomies, etc etc. The MDS does not capture the time spent with families, to offer support,to explain the behaviors,the progess of theirs illnesses , the medications, their effects,and yet we have to do it:it is their loved one , for who we care. The time spent is approximately , on a daily basis easily 2 hours, but it is not calculated. The CMI does not reflect this , therefore it is my opinion that the use of the CMI is a “political game“and the MOHLTC does not want to know , they can not afford it.

  • Henry borkowski says:

    While client or patient centered care is crucial, the delivery must be flexible enough to properly accommodate couples. The system should not ignore such fundamental relationships. Imagine you’re well into your 90s and still spry and sharp while your slightly younger wife needs nursing care for severe health issues… how can you keep a relationship vital if significantly different levels of support aren’t available contiguously?

  • Denyse Lynch says:

    Can we PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, & PLEASE +++++++ STOP talking in circles about options and make informed, quality decisions. We need to implement solutions for caring for seniors and supporting caregivers. We’ve known for ages this crisis in senior care was coming and yet today leaders, planners, organizers, policy makers of health care continue to talk and REPEAT the refrain – “we take this very seriously”.
    My journey, caring for my dad began in 1999 when I moved him from Quebec to Toronto – cared for him in my home, cared for him while he was in a Retirement Home and quit my extremely well paid career to care for him in LTC from 2008 – 2014, until he died. My husband, developed a chronic condition along the way, and I continue to care for him, in 2018. I was/am involved in advocating for quality care for both my loved ones across silo-ed health care elements from primary care, to specialists, mental health care, to hospital admissions, ER & CCAC, Retirement and LTC Home experiences. Additionally, I joined, met with and contributed ideas to family councils, MOH representatives, speak as a Patient Advisor at conferences, looked into and joined carer organizations and completed numerous surveys too many times to count – all asking the “same” questions. I also became a Patient Advisor and am recruited to work on health research and health quality improvement initiatives.
    While I have seen some improvements across some health care elements, I cannot say the same for LTC.
    We “all” know the problems, gaps, barriers, especially carers who bear the physical, financial, social, emotional aspects of caring for loved ones. Organizations dedicated to over-seeing, improving, providing senior care – LTC, government, researchers, policy makers, quality improvement stakeholders are true masters of surveys, studies, commissions and issuing reports filled with data.They are the BEST. However, these stakeholders are just as “silo-ed”, constricted by their thinking and limited in their approach to implementating improvements as the health system has been in providing care to patients. We cannot continue to study, talk; we have all the data needed to make significant improvements.

    No matter the quantity & quality, nor the seriousness, frequency, power of words, language employed and how deeply, profound the talks are and how much they impact those who hear the talks, the lives of our seniors, & carers’ physical, emotional, mental, social & financial health our society’s productivity, economy can never be sustained, let alone improved by TALK. I certainly am interested in knowing, being involved in making these changes, not just talking about them.

    • Peggy Clark says:

      Absolutely! Well said! And why do parents get paid to take care of infants, but caregivers are not paid to take care of their loved ones that are unable to take care of themselves? Sure, there is a tax break if they live with you (doesn’t begin to make a difference), but not all caregivers live under the same roof. My mother lived on her own until the day she was admitted into LTC with mixed dementia. I was there every day for years doing her finances, groceries, cleaning, laundry, driving to appointments and later cooking, feeding, monitoring with a security camera, etc, etc. How was I able to earn an income while doing all of that? If an elderly person is unable to take care of themselves and requires ongoing assistance – they should receive some compensation to help pay for their homecare – whether that care is provided by a “professional” or a family member.

    • Daniel Adam says:

      I agree. I have land to develop in the city of Toronto for this very purpose. It is already zoned appropriately. Anyone reading this note would like to respond, I’d be happy to discuss.

      • Lan Nguyen says:

        Hi Daniel,
        We from the Golden Age Village for The Elderly have been looking for land for quite a few years to build a first ever long term care and an affordable senior home for our Vietnamese seniors. We would be very interested to meet with you to explore the opportunity.

      • Omar says:

        please connect with me

    • Adele Blair says:

      I love your straight talk! So sick of talking about social issues or better yet, researching about them some more! Let’s get some action and FIX the problems!

    • Mary Adele Blair says:

      I love your straight talk! So sick of talking about social issues or better yet, researching about them some more! Let’s get some action and FIX the problems!

Authors

Dafna Izenberg

Contributor

Dafna is the Managing editor of special projects at Maclean’s Magazine.

Ryan Hinds

Contributor

Ryan Hinds is the lead for Community Engagement at the Toronto Central LHIN, and Co-Lead for the DLSPH Outreach and Access Program. He is also an adjunct lecturer at the Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto and a Public Speaker.

Joshua Tepper

Contributor

Joshua Tepper is a family physician and the President and Chief Executive Officer of North York General Hospital. He is also a member of the Healthy Debate editorial board.

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