A look at part of the exterior of Southbridge Owen Sound long-term care home.
The Ministry of Long-Term Care has allowed Southbridge Owen Sound to resume admissions.
Provincial assistant director of the long-term care inspections branch Brad Robinson says in a Nov. 23 letter admissions can resume at the long-term care facility on 16th Avenue East effective immediately, “based on results of recent inspections.”
Southbridge Owen Sound had been under a cease admissions order since Aug. 16, after Robinson found “there is a risk of harm to the health or well-being of residents at the home or persons who might be admitted as residents.”
According to a public inspection report, those infractions included a resident leaving the home without supervision or power of attorney present, a resident getting injured after he or she had wandered off, complaints of residents having to wait an unusually long time to have their personal needs met and other issues.
In a statement sent to Bayshore News in early October, Southbridge Executive Director Brenda Lowe said “the citation concerned issues primarily related to the adoption of new technologies and opening of a new building” and added the home was awaiting Ministry inspection “so we can welcome more residents to this state-of-the-art new home.”
The Nov. 23 letter from the provincial inspections branch confirming the end of the cease admissions order asks Home and Community Care Support Services to work with Southbridge to develop and implement “a gradual and mutual satisfactory plan to resume admissions to safely meet the needs of all residents.”
Bayshore Broadcasting News reached out to Southbridge Care Homes for comment, but didn’t receive a response by publication deadline.
Southbridge opened its 160-bed long-term care home in Owen Sound in December 2022.
