Liberals Urged to 'Keep the Promise', Honour Commitments to LTC

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Provincial Liberals Urged to 'Keep the Promise', Honour Commitments to Long Term Care

OTTAWA (January 27, 2004) – During the provincial election campaign, the Liberals pledged more than $420 million in additional annual operating funding to long term care facilities. More recently, the Ontario Health and Long-Term Care Minister said he is personally committed to making lasting improvements in the sector.

“We expect the government to keep its promises in the upcoming Budget,” said Donna Rubin, CEO of the Ontario Association of Non-Profit Homes and Services for Seniors (OANHSS). “The more than 26,000 residents in our member facilities, their families and friends, the staff and administrators across the province are counting on the Liberals to do what is right.”

A study by PricewaterhouseCoopers ranked Ontario last of 10 jurisdictions in the level of care it provides to residents (behind Mississippi, South Dakota, Michigan, Maine, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands).

“We have been ‘nickel and dimed’ for so long, treated as the poor cousin of the health care system, that an infusion of $420 million a year would just bring us into line with the average in other jurisdictions,” Rubin noted.

In Ottawa today to talk with local facility administrators about the mounting pressures they are facing because of the funding shortfall, Rubin reported that the list of serious problems includes:

Facilities are expected to feed their residents on a budget of only $5.24 per person per day
Facilities do not have enough money to hire the nurses and personal support workers needed. Typically, a registered nurse now looks after more than 60 residents on day shift, and more than 100 residents at night. Staff ‘burnout’ and high turnover rates are commonplace.
Each resident receives little more than about 2 hours of nursing and personal care per day.
As a result, families that can afford to do so are hiring extra nursing and companion care services for their loved ones. Increasingly, people are paying out of their own pockets for this additional care. This is creating a two-tiered system.
Even though more than half of residents have Alzheimer’s or some other form of dementia, less than 6 per cent receive professional mental health services.
Only 10 per cent of residents with rehabilitation potential actually receive physical therapy.
It is often difficult for residents to get access to physicians. The major reasons are the low fees paid by the province for doctors’ visits to facilities, as well as physician shortages.

Faced with the fact that funding is not keeping pace with the growing needs of residents, the organizations supporting not-for-profit homes have done everything they can to address the shortfall. Charitable foundations and municipalities have had to step in and provide additional monies -- now amounting to more than $100 million a year -- in an effort to maintain a level of care and a quality of life for residents that the province has been unable to support.

“Yes, we need more clearly-defined standards and a more effective monitoring system, and we support those initiatives. But we must also have the operating dollars to provide for the residents,” Rubin stated. “To say that money is not the answer is to deny the reality. We could be doing so much more for the people in our homes but it will require a financial commitment.”

OANHSS also wants the Liberals to make good on the previous government’s commitment to increase funding for home and community care. Money is desperately needed for services such as homemaking, respite care, adult day programs, visiting health services, meal programs, supportive housing and others. Improved funding for this sector would help to keep people out of being prematurely admitted to facilities just to get the services they need.

“For years, we have heard promises from successive governments that these issues would be addressed. The time for talk is over. The time for action is now,” said Rubin.

OANHSS is the provincial association representing not-for-profit providers of long term care, services and housing for seniors. Its member facilities operate over 25,000 long term care beds and more than 5,000 seniors' housing units in Ontario.

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For further information, contact:

Debbie Humphreys
905-851-8821 ext 233

C	ontact OANHSS

Ontario Association of Non-Profit Homes & Services for Seniors
7050 Weston Road, Suite 700, Woodbridge, Ontario L4L 8G7
(P) 905-851-8821
(F) 905-851-0744

OANHSS Privacy Policy

OANHSS members include not-for-profit providers of long term care, services and housing for seniors in Ontario.
Members include municipal and charitable long term care homes, non-profit nursing homes,
seniors' housing projects and community service agencies.