Extendicare must build new facility, renovate old one before new long-term care beds become reality

Extendicare's national director of communications, Rebecca Scott Rawn, says the Liberal government's announcement of new longterm care beds is good for the region, but adds the new beds for Sudbury are still at least two to three years away from becoming reality.

Out of the 5,000 new long-term care beds promised by the province by 2022, 232 are slated for northeastern Ontario facilities. Fifty-four of those beds are planned for Sudbury, where Extendicare plans on building two new long-term care homes over the next decade.

Long-term plans

Extendicare already has 522 beds in its two existing long-term care homes in the city — they're called York and Falconbridge.

A brand-new 256-bed home is planned on Algonquin Road in the city's south end.

Extendicare is still waiting on ministry and municipal approvals to begin construction. The new home could take around 24 months to complete, Scott Rawn says.

Large-scale renovations are also planned for the current facility on York Street, near Health Sciences North. When complete, they'll bring the number of beds at York down from 288 to 128.

Current plans call for Extendicare's 234-bed Falconbridge Road location to be decommissioned.

Scott Rawn says it will be replaced by yet another new facility, which will house 192 beds. She adds Extendicare has yet to select a location for the site.

"At the end of our renewal project, we will have three homes and we will be adding the 54 beds into one of those new homes," Scott Rawn said.

"We'll have 576 beds across three buildings."

She adds Extendicare won't receive any money from the province until the beds are actually up and running — meaning until renovations at York are complete and the new Algonquin Road facility is built.

However, she's confident the ministry's funding will remain available no matter which party wins next June's election.

"We'll work on getting those beds completed and then certainly the operating funding for those beds would then flow," says Scott Rawn.

Three- to five-year wait for some homes

NDP Nickel Belt MPP and Health Critic France Gélinas says the new long-term care beds are welcome, but that much more needs to be done for the region's aging population.

Currently, 1,126 people sit on the North East LHIN's waitlist to be placed in a long-term care bed in the region.

"It is a small step in the right direction," offers Gélinas. "They are promising 54 new beds that should become available in a few years. Every year our wait list goes up by about 15 per cent."

She adds the numerous smaller communities surrounding Sudbury were completely ignored in the push to get long-term care bed funding announced before this June's election.

She argues smaller non-profit groups in the region didn't have time to respond to the province's requests for proposal for new beds.

"There's a project in Capreol that has been waiting a very long time for licenses for long-term care beds to become available," says Gélinas, adding there's also a dire lack of long-term care in Walden. "I can tell you, if there had been more planning going into this, there are areas of our city where the need is greater."

North East LHIN spokesperson Sacha Novack says wait time length "will depend on the patient's health care needs, facility choices, and area.

"For example, a patient may receive a bed tomorrow if they are willing to go to homes that do not have waitlists, or in smaller communities they may wait. Hearst has a four-and-a-half year waitlist at this time, and Kapuskasing is three years. Likewise, we have homes in Sudbury that have a waitlist of four years," explains Novack.

Jeremy Stevenson, the North East LHIN's CEO, stated in a press release the funding for new long-term care beds is welcome.

"These beds will help address the hospital pressures in Sudbury and will address the long wait list for long-term care. In addition, they will facilitate the redevelopment of our older homes like (Extendicare York) so that we can provide our residents with the dignity and privacy that they deserve," said Stevenson.

The Liberal government also announced funding for 88 new long-term care beds in Sault Ste. Marie, 46 in Haileybury and 32 in Moosonee. In March, the province promised to finance 12 new beds at North Bay's Waters Edge Care Community.