Madonna home demands more supports

As part of a provincial campaign speared by the Ontario Long-Term Care Association, Orléans-based Madonna Long Term Care will present signed postcards to Ottawa-Orléans MPP Phil McNeely and Ottawa-Vanier MPP Madeline Meilleur on Friday, March 6.

Madonna LTC has been involved with the initiative for the last three weeks, explains administrator Humphrey Jacques, collecting signed postcards from across the east end as well as promoting the project online. The consortium of long-term care facilities is asking for an additional $265 million in funding, he recounts, to raise the hours-per-day of care for residents, hire dieticians, increase the supply of incontinence products and improve programming.

Jacques points to a six-year provincial "funding erosion" as the cause of care shortages for long-term care residents, estimating that facilities have been forced to absorb over $85 million in cuts since then.

The clawback of funds has led to a "reduced level of staffing," he continues, meaning they cannot meet the ever-changing needs of long-term care residents. Everything from recreation programming to housekeeping has been impacted, Jacques adds.

The provincial government needs to reinstate enough funding so that Ontario facilities can reach three hours of care per resident, per day, he explains, currently sitting at a rate of three minutes below the three-hour mark. By comparison, other provinces offer levels of care up to three and a half hours per day, Jacques says.

"We cannot attend to all their needs in a 24-hour period," he continues. "It does affect residents."

McNeely, who says he is "looking forward" to meeting with Madonna LTC officials, suggests that since 2003 the province has done "quite a bit" of work to get funding levels up to par. In addition to an increase of cash for health care across the board, the provincial government also funnelled a $1-billion – or 50 per cent – increase in funding for long-term care and committed last year to raising the amount of per-resident nursing care, he recounts.

"There has been a lot done, but we still have a lot of people in hospitals who should be in long-term care," McNeely explains, pointing to the 1,700 hospital patients who should be elsewhere. "A lot of these increases cost a fortune. (But) we understand there's a problem."

The province has also been working on its recent aging at home strategy to achieve the same goals, he continues, in order to reduce hospital wait times and usage of "very expensive" hospital resources instead of lower-cost solutions.

Though health care continues to rapidly grow more expensive – it's a "major problem" finding the resources necessary to keep up, McNeely adds – he concedes that Madonna LTC and other facilities will be looking for some kind of action out of upcoming government budgets.

An increased cash flow is the answer, echoes Jacques, who says he's hoping the meeting with area MPPs "will have a positive impact."

"The voices of citizens are speaking loud and very clear," Jacques adds. "I hope (the government) will listen."

For more information on the postcard campaign, please visit www.oltca.com