Union leaders urge N.S. government to spend new health money in seniors' homes

There isn't even a deal between Ottawa and the Nova Scotia government for extra health-are money,  but Tuesday the head of the province's largest nurses union urged the governing Progressive Conservatives to spend some of that potential new money on long-term care.

"It's just sad and we've been talking about this since I've been president and that wasn't yesterday," Janet Hazelton told the legislature's health committee. "We just got a bunch of federal funds. We should use some of those federal funds to improve our long-term care, not just our acute care.

"The acute care, they have their problems, but long-term care — I think — is worse in some ways."

Hazelton, who has been president of the Nova Scotia Nurses' Union for 20 years, told MLAs seniors are not getting the level of care they deserve and it's been that way for decades — despite promises by successive governments to improve things.

She said it's deplorable that people in care might only get one bath a week.

"We don't treat our children at the IWK this way," said Hazelton. "We need to improve the system."

The case to invest in long-term care

"People need to make a decision in this province, we're either going to invest in long-term care or we're not," she said. "And if we can live with not, then let's live with it, let's tell our seniors this is your life."

That sentiment was echoed by the Canadian Union of Public Employees Nova Scotia president Nan McFadgen.

"We either need to decide that the residents who live in care and the people who care for them are worth the investment or they're not," said McFadgen. "If you go with not, well I'm not going to be OK with that. I'm probably going to lose my mind."

The associate deputy minister of the Department of Seniors and Long-Term Care, Tracey Barbrick, told the committee the Houston government was already spending millions of dollars to make sure seniors are well looked after and beds remained open.

She said since the fall of 2021, the province had spent $30 million to hire travel nurses to work in long-term care homes.

"Probably 16 months ago we had 500 nursing home beds in the province closed," she said. "Travel nurses have been part of the strategy while we grow a proper workforce that meets the needs of the sector as a short-term plan."

Barbrick estimated just a handful of the 8,052 long-term care beds in the province were currently closed due to staff shortages.

Not long after the meeting, the department sent reporters an updated estimate of the cost of travel or temporary nurses.

"The department's current estimate for travel staff in the continuing care sector is about $45 million," wrote communications adviser Khalehla Perrault, in an email to CBC News.

Negotiations with Ottawa continue

Although Hazelton said she was "shocked" by the original figure, deputy minister Paul LaFleche defended the Houston government's approach to long-term care staffing shortages.

"I just want to say one thing, in almost 20 years as a deputy, I have never seen a government so committed to doing whatever it takes," LaFleche told the committee in his closing statement. "You can look at … money and travel nurses and they're doing whatever it takes to keep these facilities open to open beds and to ensure that seniors are treated with dignity."

As for the possibility of using any of the extra money that may come from Ottawa in a new health deal, Barbrick told reporters after the meeting she wasn't sure.

"So we have an existing bilateral [agreement] for home and community care now. Thirteen million dollars a year comes to our department to support care at home. As for what will come with the next negotiation, it's not finalized yet, so I think it would be premature for me to comment on it," Barbrick said.

"Until that negotiation with the federal government is complete, I can't comment."