Paulette Halupa, the New Democratic Party candidate in Summerside-St.Eleanor’s, has accused the Ghiz Liberals of ignoring the needs of many seniors at a time when the province is experiencing a rapidly aging population. She’s especially concerned about the situation around long-term care beds in the Summerside area.
“There are currently about 22,000 Islanders over the age of 65, representing 15% of the population,” Halupa said. “In the next 20 years, those figures will double. However, the Ghiz government has no plans to significantly increase the number of long-term care beds in public manors and, instead, intends to have the private sector meet that growing need.”
As evidence for her claim, Halupa referred to the current allocations under the province’s Manor Replacement Program and a recommendation contained in the report that forms the basis for that program.
“The 2008 Ascent Strategy Group report laid out the manor replacement program that the Ghiz government is currently following,” the NDP candidate explained. “On page 78 of that report, it notes that ‘an additional 101 LTC (Long-Term Care) beds will be required for the five-year cycle 2012-2017…The private sector should be given the opportunity to create additional beds.’ When you combine this reference with the fact that the new government manors will contain the same number of beds as the buildings they’re replacing, it’s clear that the government is deliberately choosing not to provide the extra beds that a growing senior’s population would need – and it’s doing that so its friends in the private sector can build nursing homes or expand their current facilities.”
“Profit in the private sector is being put ahead of the needs of people – in this case, the needs of seniors in the Summerside area and across the province.”
“For example, we’re already short of long-term beds in the Summerside area,” she said, “with many seniors having to go to private sector nursing homes in other communities. Yet the new manor that’s going up in Summerside has the same number of beds as the manor it’s replacing. This ensures that not only will the current problem continue, but with a growing senior’s population, it will get worse in the coming years. Unless, of course, a friend of the government steps in to build a new nursing home or expand a current operation – and make a profit at the same time.”
Halupa also wants to see the public manors expand their level of care to take in the full range of seniors’ housing needs.
“Research has shown the benefits of having seniors remain in the same facility throughout the course of their care,” she said. “If a senior is in community care setting, for example, where he or she needs light care and supervision and then suffers a health setback that requires more intensive nursing level care, the individual will often experience additional health problems – and sometimes death – if moved from one facility to another. Unfortunately, government manors only provide nursing level care, they don’t provide community care. So, if someone has to go to a manor, they usually have to transfer from a private sector home to the public facility – and it’s that transfer that can often produce disastrous results.”
“The provincial government should be providing the full continuum of of care rather than allowing the private sector to monopolize certain parts of the system.”
The NDP candidate criticized the Ghiz government for missing the boat when it let Charlotte Court in Charlottetown be re-developed b a private developer as part of P3 project (a Public-Private Partnership).
“The government should have taken advantage of the need to replace the old Charlotte Court to build an integrated seniors’ care complex, owned and operated by the people of Prince Edward Island,” she stated. “If they had, seniors could have moved from independent living arrangements in their own apartments to assisted living units to community care to, eventually, nursing level care. This would have occurred all in the same complex, while increasing the chances of preserving the health and safety of the seniors. Instead, they’ve let the private sector control things, with the profits going directly into private sector pockets.”
“It just goes to show where the priorities of the Ghiz government are!”
