{"id":928570,"date":"2026-10-11T04:07:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T04:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/928570\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T04:07:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T04:07:09","slug":"82-new-long-term-care-beds-planned-in-expansion-of-charlottetown-nursing-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/928570\/","title":{"rendered":"82 new long-term care beds planned in expansion of Charlottetown nursing home"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

Whisperwood community care and nursing home in Charlottetown is getting 82 more long-term care beds, the province announced Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The contract to expand the facility and operate the beds has been awarded to Enhanced Living, with the P.E.I. government providing more than $100 million over a 30-year agreement to support construction costs.<\/p>\n

The province will also pay an estimated $10.1 million annually once the beds are operational to help offset accommodation costs.<\/p>\n

The expansion is expected to be completed and the beds open by 2029.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Health and Wellness Minister Cory Deagle, left, and P.E.I. Premier Rob Lantz unveil plans Tuesday for an expansion to Charlottetown’s Whisperwood community care and nursing home. (Steve Bruce\/CBC)<\/p>\n

“We’ve got a growing population, an aging population, and this will also relieve a lot of pressure from our hospital system,” Premier Rob Lantz said.<\/p>\n

“Long-term care is an integral part of our health-care services as a whole and there’s a lot of stress here in this area and\u00a0expanding our capacity \u2026 is going to go a long way to relieving a lot of pressure.”<\/p>\n

A government news release said the Whisperwood expansion brings the number of long-term care beds under development to 222 between Charlottetown, Cornwall and Summerside. The province has also issued a request for proposals for up to 48 new beds in Kings County<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With the current projects, the number of long-term care beds in P.E.I. is expected to increase to 1,595 by 2029.<\/p>\n

Health and Wellness Minister Cory Deagle said the department has a plan over the coming years to train and recruit more staff.<\/p>\n

“We do have a \u2026 two- to three-year window with a lot of these announcements to train more staff and build up that capacity,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I think there’s time to work on that and I think that our operators do a good job.”<\/p>\n

Darlene Oakes, executive director of the Nursing Home Association of P.E.I., called the announcement “extraordinarily good news” and said there is a “universal need” for more long-term care beds across the country.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Darlene Oakes, executive director of the Nursing Home Association of P.E.I., called Tuesday’s announcement ‘extraordinarily good news.’ (Steve Bruce\/CBC)<\/p>\n

“This organization has an excellent reputation and is going to be able to provide that safe, quality, person-centred care,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It takes, certainly, a whole team of people to look after the residents, and that is housekeeping, dietary, activities, nursing care, physician care, allied health \u2014 it’s a huge team of people.”<\/p>\n

Enhanced Living’s chief financial officer, Joshua Simon, said there are many people currently in hospital beds who should be in long-term care homes.<\/p>\n

“We provide competitive wages, good benefits, we don’t hire travel nurses and we staff above what government regulations require,” Simon said.<\/p>\n

“We have a really good history of providing really great care and keeping our home fully staffed.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Joshua Simon, Enhanced Living’s chief financial officer, says there are many people currently in hospital beds who should be in long-term care homes. (Steve Bruce\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Lantz said the long-term care beds will allow Islanders to age in place close to their communities and families.<\/p>\n

“We recognize the need, I recognize the need and I’ve worked with my minister of health, the Department of Health and\u00a0Wellness, Health P.E.I. to get the ball rolling,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s time to relieve the pressure in our hospitals, it’s time to serve our Island seniors with world-class, modern facilities where they can age with dignity. It’s just the right thing to do.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":928571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":["post-928570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=928570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/928571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=928570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=928570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=928570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}