Long-term care budget increase met with criticism from sector, MLAs
CBC
Some long-term care groups say the latest provincial budget doesn’t go far enough to fill the gaps in the sector that are driving problems in health care.
Improving access to health care is, according to the finance minister, the province's number one priority.
But Jan Seely, CEO of the New Brunswick Special Care Home Association, said the system won't meaningfully improve until seniors can get faster access to care outside hospital walls.
She isn't convinced the latest budget for long-term care will be enough to achieve that.
New Brunswick’s regional health authorities have long identified alternate level of care, or ALC, patients as the largest contributor to capacity problems in hospitals. Horizon Health's CEO has even said she would give up part of her budget for better long-term care.
These patients use hospital space while waiting for a place in long-term care, which in turn leaves fewer beds for people in need of acute care.
Seely worries that the latest budgeted amount doesn’t reflect the urgency of the situation, as seniors wait in hospitals that are struggling to find space to admit people.
“If we can't prioritize this long-term care file in a way that shows that government recognizes the urgency and the crisis, and the fact that people are actually dying and suffering while they're waiting for government to get this organized … then we are failing,” Seely said in an interview.
“This is to me, it would be a disgrace if I was in government.”
Long-term care is seeing the largest increase of any budget line within the Department of Social Development — 19.4 per cent higher than the budget last year and a 16 per cent boost from actual spending.
But, like Seely, the CEO of the New Brunswick Association of Nursing Homes said it's not enough.
Richard Losier described the funds budgeted to increase the hours of care per nursing home resident as “basically nothing” in an interview with CBC News.
During consultations for the province's long-term care plan, which is set to be released Thursday, Losier said there were conversations about increasing the hours of care from 3.1 to 4.1 over five years.
That increase would help homes fund staffing levels that would allow for 12 more minutes of care annually.
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