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More than 1,200 people are estimated to be waiting for a long-term care bed in Thunder Bay, Ont., according to Janine Black.
The president and chief executive officer of St. Joseph’s Care Group says her organization has been waiting years to open 64 permanent long-term care beds, following an expansion of its Hogarth Riverview Manor long-term care home in 2015.
“The 64 beds were put in a balance by the Ministry of Long-Term Care. They said, ‘we don’t want you to open those beds, you’re not prepared to open them,’” said Black.
Since 2018, the beds have been operated by St. Joseph’s Care Group alongside the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre (TBRHSC) as temporary transitional care beds.
But now, the ministry has given the green light for the beds to be added to the facility’s long-term care complement.
“Transitional care is, was and always will be a temporary solution,” Black said.
Janine Black is president and chief executive officer of St. Joseph’s Care Group in Thunder Bay, Ont. (Sarah Law/CBC)
The changeover is expected to be completed by the fall. Meanwhile, St. Joseph’s Care Group is getting 14 new community-based transitional beds.
Transitional beds are meant “for people who require supports, but not at the intensity of service provided in hospital, while waiting for space to become available in the community,” St. Joseph’s Care Group says.
These patients aren’t necessarily waiting to get into long-term care; they may be waiting for a space in a rehabilitation program, a retirement home, or for at-home supports that allow them to age in place, said Rhonda Crocker-Ellacott, the TBRHSC’s president and chief executive officer.
We don’t want to see patients readmitted to hospital; we want to see patients successfully transition to other levels of care back to the community.- Rhonda Crcoker-Ellacott, president and CEO of TBRHSC
Though Crocker-Ellacott welcomes the addition of long-term care beds in the city, she is concerned about how the loss of these beds as transitional spaces may affect the hospital — which could see an influx of patients filling acute care beds who require other care, instead.
“There is a cohort of patients that very much benefit from transitional care and we are concerned that [at] the Health Sciences Centre, we need to have access to that type of bed,” she said.
“We are actually working together with Ontario Health to reestablish a semblance of transitional care within our hospital site because we recognize that there are patients who are no longer acute [but] they need more time; they don’t fit criteria for other partner programs or community programs.”
CBC News reached out to the province for comment about current wait-times to get into long-term care in Thunder Bay, as well as what is being done to meet demands for both long-term care and transitional spaces.
A spokesperson for the ministry of long-term care provided an emailed response but did not comment on current wait-times or beds specifically in Thunder Bay.
“To address LTC capacity challenges in northern Ontario, the ministry of long-term care (LTC) launched the Capital Funding Program in July 2025. The program aims to accelerate the construction of new LTC homes, particularly in regions such as northern Ontario, that face labour shortages, supply chain constraints, and other barriers,” they wrote Friday.
Hospital says more transitional care beds needed
As of Friday, Crocker-Ellacott said the TBRHSC had 76 patients that were no longer considered in need of acute care; of these, 36 were waiting for a long-term care bed.
“Additional care beds would be additional capacity to our current capacity. So, that would mean that we would be able to improve patient access, patient flow,” Crocker-Ellacott said.
Hogarth Riverview Manor in Thunder Bay, Ont., is getting 14 new community-based transitional beds as it re-purposes 64 temporary transitional spaces into long-term care beds. (Marc Doucette/CBC)
“Any type of new bed with the intended purpose of really helping patients transition effectively back home or to other levels of care is an excellent thing to see happen. We don’t want to see patients readmitted to hospital; we want to see patients successfully transition to other levels of care back to the community.”
As for Black, she said “what we’re doing right now is meeting a very immediate need for long-term care beds.”
“We will continuously work with TBRHSC, Ontario Health at Home and Ontario Health to plan together for the needs of people [whose] care needs [are] not being met in long-term care or other community transitional care units.”
St. Joseph’s Care Group has also been looking to create new supportive housing in the city, “and that is something that we work very closely with Ontario Health on trying to develop,” said Black.