P.E.I. and Ottawa earmark $29M for measures 'to help Islanders age with dignity'
CBC
The federal and provincial governments are giving details of how $29 million will be spent over the next five years to improve health care for Island seniors, by investing in measures like home-based wound care and mobile X-ray units.
Cardigan MP Lawrence MacAualy and P.E.I. Health Minister Mark McLane made the announcement at Riverview Manor in Montague, saying the deal will mean better access to home, community and long-term care.
The money is part of a $94 million federal-provincial agreement first announced in December 2023.
McLane said a primary focus of the agreement is to help seniors age at home for as long as possible before they enter a long-term care facility.
"We do have an aging population … and we do have some capacity issues, so this will allow us to expand some of our facilities — expand our home-care facilities," he said.
"Patients would like to stay home as long as possible, and I think that's where they belong. So this funding allows us to do that."
Money from the "Aging with Dignity agreement" will help pay for P.E.I.'s five-year action plan to improve health care for seniors.
Some of the goals include:
MacAulay said the home and palliative-care funding is important to many Island seniors who want the option of receiving care outside of a hospital setting, something that also decreases the burden on the health-care system.
"Without a doubt, it saves government a lot of money if you provide the service at home. And you'll find that many people want the service at home," he said.
"Pain is awful and [there's] so many things that you have to deal with as a senior. It's so important to make the quality of life better, and that's what we're doing."
McLane, meanwhile, singled out the mobile X-ray units as a way to provide patients with services inside a long-term care setting, rather than coping with the disruption of being transported to hospital.
The P.E.I. government is also adding 50 new long-term care beds to privately run facilities in order to free up hospital space.
McLane said some of the funding in this plan will go toward that expansion, as well as ensuring wage parity for workers in those private homes.
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