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City short-sheeted on long-term beds

BY HEIDI ULRICHSEN heidi@northernlife.
BY HEIDI ULRICHSEN

The Ontario government has approved funding for 15 more interim long-term care beds in Sudbury ? a number that hospital officials say falls far short of what is actually needed to care for the city?s elderly population.

Ten of these beds will be located at Sudbury Regional Hospital, and five at Pioneer Manor.

The government had already introduced 10 temporary long-term care beds last year at Pioneer Manor, which will now be in place until April, 2006.
While Sudbury Regional Hospital CEO Vickie Kaminski is happy Sudbury is getting more interim long-term care beds, she wishes the government had done more.

Kaminski asked the province to fund 32 more interim beds this summer because the shortage is affecting hospital operations. She is disappointed they failed to honour her request.

Local health-care officials have until Oct. 17 to apply for more interim beds.

Sudbury has been designated as a crisis 1A area for the past 18 months because there aren?t enough long-term care beds in the city.

The classification means the Manitoulin-Sudbury Community Care Access Centre (MSCCAC) can place clients needing nursing care anywhere in its
catchment area, including Gore Bay or Espanola.

Many elderly people have been moved to long-term care facilities a few hours away from their family because there were no spots left in Sudbury.

Sending people to long-term care homes in outlying areas does help reduce the waiting list, says Kaminski, but patients that can?t get a bed at all end up staying at the hospital.

SRH is overcrowded because staff is caring for about 64 of these patients, directing resources away from people needing surgery and other forms of care, says Kaminski.

Some patients who need to be admitted to the hospital are now being housed in stretchers in the emergency department or the recovery room. Several surgeries were cancelled in August because there weren?t enough beds.

?It?s just not a tenable situation. We are stretched to the wall,? she says. ?What the ministry did (by introducing more interim beds) is a bit of pressure relief. While we?re grateful for the 15 beds, we?d like to see 17 more. If we got 17 more, we?d be able to cope.?

Dr. Chris Bourdon, who heads up the hospital?s emergency department, says he has no idea why the government wouldn?t give Sudburians the interim beds they need.

Perhaps a whole new long-term care facility needs to be built in the city to deal with all the people that need nursing care, says Bourdon.

?There needs to be a plan for the long-term beds...We?ve got an aging population,? says the doctor.

Bourdon and his staff have scrambled over the past few months to deal with patients who can?t get an in-patient hospital bed, and are being cared for in the emergency department.

?It?s awful. I just had to walk down the hall, and almost all the hallways, stretchers were filled with in-patients. It?s a very demoralizing thing.?

Nickel Belt MPP Shelley Martel says she can?t believe how the government has ?botched? dealing with the long-term care crisis in Sudbury.

?The government has just kind of lurched from one crisis to another instead of having a concrete plan in place,? says Martel.

Sudbury MPP Rick Bartolucci says more interim beds may be approved for the city after officials re-apply to the province. It?s complicated to explain
why his government failed to deliver all of the interim beds requested by the hospital this summer, he says.

?Understanding the need and being able to deliver the amount of beds is not always as simple as it sounds. The fact of the matter is ongoing discussion and dialogue...is happening with the ministry.?



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