PARRY SOUND LTC HOME GETTING 24 MORE SPACES

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com

PARRY SOUND — Belvedere Heights Home for the Aged here is being allocated 24 new long-term care spaces bringing to 125 the number of people who can be accomodated.

“The number of people in West Parry Sound who need long-term care spaces is high and is expected to rise even more over the next decade,” said MPP Norman Miller in a release this afternoon.

“Today’s announcement will help ensure we have more modern spaces up and running and ready for our increased capacity needs today and in the future.”

“West Parry Sound is provincially identified as a high-need region for additional long term care beds and the board of Belvedere Heights is very thankful for this afternoon’s announcement,” added Lynne Gregory, chair of Belvedere’s board management.

The spaces are part of a provincial investment in 80 LTC projects that include 30,000 planned beds over a decade.

They are meant help reduce waitlists and end hallway medicine, and support key government priorities, including eliminating three and four bed ward rooms, creating campuses of care and providing new spaces for Indigenous, Francophone and other cultural community residents.

  • Criteria for selecting the projects being announced today included:
    Upgrading older homes in response to lessons learned around improved Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) measures, particularly the elimination of three and four-bed rooms;
  • Adding spaces to areas where there is high need;
  • Addressing the growing needs of diverse groups, including Francophone and Indigenous communities; and/or,
  • Promoting campuses of care to better address the specialized care needs of residents.

MINISTRY OF HEALTH BACKGROUND:
As of December 2020, more than 40,000 people across Ontario were on the waitlist to access a long-term care bed.
Across the province, the Ontario government is moving forward with 80 new long-term care projects, which will lead to an additional 7,510 new and 4,197 upgraded long-term care spaces.
Ontario is investing $933 million in these projects province-wide, on top of the $1.75 billion already earmarked for the delivery of 30,000 new spaces over ten years.
With this new allocation, Ontario now has 20,161 new and 15,918 redevelopment spaces in the development pipeline.

Ontario has committed to an average of four hours of direct care per day for our loved ones living in long term care homes. Ontario is the first province in Canada to take this important step.

Parry Sound’s Belvedere Heights will see its beds increase by two dozen to 125.

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