The Bruce County Long Term Care Committee will be calling on the provincial government to help protect funding for Brucelea Haven and Gateway Haven.
Megan Garland, the Director of Long Term Care and Senior Services explained to the council that, “We are funded through the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, and if we do not achieve 97% of our occupancy through the year, they will reduce our funding by 3%.”
The sliding scale for funding was put on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the pandemic, the provincial government implemented occupancy protection for all Long-Term Care homes in Ontario.
Garland says that since September 30, 2022, her department has seen a lot of changes related to health and human resources related to increased outbreaks, as well as related to the complex care for residents.
She also says that with turnovers that they’ve been seeing, they are not able to fill beds as quickly as they could pre-pandemic.
“This is an important advocacy item for this council to advocate for with the provincial government to encourage them to re-institute that occupancy protection, or another financial protection for our homes, to ensure that we’re not financially penalized for things that are out of our control, and a general impact of the health system in its entirety.”
Specifically, a home can’t complete a new resident’s intake during an outbreak.
Since the fall of 2022, Long-Term Care homes throughout Ontario have experienced increasing circulation of influenza, RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus), and COVID-19, which has increased the number of outbreaks experienced.
Garland says in her report to council that Brucelea Haven and Gateway Haven are seeing more turnover — patients are having shorter stays within the home because they are admitted later in the progression of their illness, meaning their stay is shorter.
The committee approved the motion to send correspondence to the provincial government, advocating for more funding protection.