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The New Brunswick government unveiled a long-term care strategy for seniors Thursday with a promise to add 624 nursing home beds to the system by the end of the decade and improve support services so more people can remain in their own homes as they age.
“We have to get ahead of this problem,” Premier Susan Holt said. “We have to get invested in community. We have to get invested in home care and provide those supports so that the demand for those long-term care beds starts to go down.”
The new beds are one of several actions in the plan, which has four pillars: bolstering the sector’s workforce, improving support for caregivers, aging in place, and increasing long-term care capacity.
By 2027, Holt said, 240 nursing home beds will be added by expanding existing Shannex homes, with 120 beds to come in Fredericton, 60 in Riverview and 60 in Quispamsis.
The locations for 360 beds will be announced after a selection process following an open call for proposals.
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Long-term care plan includes 624 new nursing home beds
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Holt said 24 beds will be added by renovating a wing of the former Villa Providence nursing home in Shediac, bringing the total number to 624.
Richard Losier, the CEO of the New Brunswick Association of Nursing Homes, said the promised beds won’t be enough to ease the current crisis.
“I feel for the hospitals, [they] are going to be stuck for another two years, three years with very little hope there,” Losier said.
Richard Losier, CEO of the New Brunswick Association of Nursing Homes, said he’s happy there’s a plan, even if things aren’t happening quickly enough. (Michel Corriveau/Radio-Canada)
As of this month, the waitlist for a nursing home bed is around 1,000 people, many of them waiting in hospital. People waiting for a spot in a long-term care home account for about 40 per cent of acute-care beds in the province.
Health Minister John Dornan agreed there is an urgency to the problem that has other negative effects on the health-care system.
“Our emergency departments are backed up tremendously,” Dornan said. “Our inability to care adequately for our seniors in the province contributes to this. Surgeries and procedures are delayed because we have not been able to give good care and get people out of the hospitals and into the right place.”
Health Minister John Dornan says the shortage of beds in nursing homes contributes to other problems in the health system. (Allyson McCormack/CBC)
There is a major issue with the shortage of beds, but Holt said the government also plans to speed up assessments for seniors in need of long-term care, including those waiting in hospital beds.
She said the average wait for an assessment is 54 days, which is too long in her estimation. The plan doesn’t set a target for reducing that wait, but Holt said she wants to see it closer to one week.
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Government reports dating back more than 30 years warned that an aging New Brunswick population required a shift to more home care.
The plan also noted that the need for beds is projected to reach 2,000 by 2030, and it proposed a series of system changes aimed at reducing that need.
The government will spend $4 million to expand the Nursing Home Without Walls program, strengthening community support and services to help seniors age in place.
It also promised to help improve access to affordable home care and support services so more seniors can remain independent in their homes.
“More seniors will have access to the care and support they need to stay in their homes and communities,” Holt said.
At Thursday’s announcement, Holt also said six nursing homes will be replaced: Campbellton Nursing Home, Foyer Assomption in Rogersville, Passamaquoddy Lodge in Saint Andrews, Lincourt Manor in St. Stephen, Résidences Lucien Saindon in Île-de-Lamèque, and Résidence Mgr Melanson in Saint-Quentin.
Losier said the plan doesn’t fix the current crisis, but “it’s a step forward,” he said.
“We’re going to take that as a positive and, and work towards making seniors lives better in this province,” Losier said.