Wait-list for long-term care in N.S. at record level. Experts warn it will only get worse
Global News
Nova Scotia has a record 4,278 people on wait-lists for placements in long-term care facilities. Advocates say they predicted this years ago, and say it’s only going to get worse.
The backlog to get into long-term care in Nova Scotia is worse than it’s ever been.
This doesn’t surprise Michele Lowe, executive director of Nursing Homes of Nova Scotia Association. She said that advocates and academics were predicting this years ago, and warn that it’s only going to get worse.
The latest data shows that Nova Scotia has a record 4,278 people on wait-lists for placements in long-term care (LTC) facilities. The old record was in 2015, with just under 4,000 people on wait-lists.
“We predicted where we are, and it’s not going to stop. This list could potentially double within the next five years,” said Lowe. “We simply do not have enough long-term beds in Nova Scotia, or across the country.”
Wait-lists have been growing much faster over the past four months, as the fourth and fifth waves of COVID-19 severely impacted the staffing of LTC facilities. According to Lowe, more than 40 facilities were not accepting new admissions because of workforce pressures.
“So we have many facilities that are in what we would refer to as a critical situation in terms of staffing,” said Lowe. “So they can only, because of that workforce pressure, take care of the residents who are currently there.”
Working during a labour shortage is an unfortunate norm for Denise Hubbard, a continuing care assistant (CCA) working at an LTC facility in rural Cape Breton.
She said with the current staff-to-resident ratio of one CCA per six residents, taking on more residents would be difficult.