Nursing homes asks province to increase funding

 A local nursing home is leading a campaign asking the provincial government to increase the level of care for clients inside nursing homes.

It's time to provide the funding in the upcoming provincial budget so nursing homes can increase staffing levels, says Claire McChesney, administrator at the Finlandia Nursing Home in Sudbury.

The residents, families and staff at Finlandia will be asking Sudbury MPP Rick Bartolucci to deliver this message to the Liberal government over the next three weeks, said McChesney.

Finlandia Nursing Home is circulating a petition to be delivered to Bartolucci with a request it be presented when the Legislature resumes sitting on March 19.

The petition asks the government to fund 30 more minutes of care for each resident and address food and other funding pressures in all long-term care homes by increasing operating funding by $390 million in 2007 and $214 million in 2008.

It also asks the government to begin eliminating three and four bed wards by introducing a capital renewal and retrofit program for older nursing homes starting with a commitment of $9.5 million this year to renew the first 2,500 of these 35,000 beds.

"Our staff now have less than 10 minutes to get a resident up, dressed, to the bathroom and to the dining room for breakfast," said McChesney, in a news release. "We need more funding for more staff so that we are not rushing just to provide the essentials and residents don't have to wiat to get the daily care and support they need."

"Government kept indicating these were budget, and not legislation issues," said Karen Sullivan, executive director of the Ontario Long Term Care Association, which represents Finlandia Nursing Home. "Residents, families and others are now looking to the upcoming budget for government to respond to their pleas."

Increased operating funding would raise average care levels in Ontario's long term care homes to three hours per resident per day, based on actual hours, and bring Ontario in line with other jurisdictions in Canada, said Sullivan.

Finlandia Nursing Home provides care and services to 110 residents and has been operating in Sudbury for seven years.