News

Ontario Taking Action to Immediately Increase Staffing in LTC, Leading to More Direct Care for Residents in Nipissing

NIPISSING – Vic Fedeli, MPP for Nipissing announced that as part of its plan to fix long-term care, the Ontario government will provide up to $673 million this year to long-term care homes across the province to increase staffing levels, leading to more direct care for residents. This includes $5,503,176 for long-term care homes in Nipissing. This is part of the province’s commitment to ensure long-term care residents receive—on average—four hours of direct care per day by 2024-25.

These funds will increase care for residents at:

• Cassellholme, in North Bay, will receive up to $2,093,136 for additional staffing this year to increase the hours of direct care for residents
• Eastholme – Home for the Aged, in Powassan, will receive up to $1,116,336 for additional staffing this year to increase the hours of direct care for residents.
• Northern Heights (Waters Edge Care Community), in North Bay, will receive up to $889,572 for additional staffing this year to increase the hours of direct care for residents.
• Nipissing Manor Nursing Care Centre, in Corbeil, will receive up to $767,472 for additional staffing this year to increase the hours of direct care for residents.
• Algonquin Nursing Home, in Mattawa, will receive up to $636,660 for additional staffing this year to increase the hours of direct care for residents.

“This funding will allow homes in our community to hire and retain more staff so they can provide more care to residents, every day,” said MPP Vic Fedeli. “This is part of our government’s plan to hire thousands of new staff over the next four years to ensure those living in long-term care get the high-quality care they need and deserve.”

“The Board of Management for Eastholme, Home for the Aged is pleased to hear about the Ministry of Long-Term Care’s announcement to increase funding for Hours of Direct Care.   This significant increase in funding clearly demonstrates the level of commitment the Province of Ontario and the Ministry of Long-Term Care have made toward improving the amount of care provided to every individual resident, and thereby directly increasing resident wellbeing!   This funding also represents a significant contribution to our local economy in terms of new full-time positions for people living in our local communities!  Thank you to the Province of Ontario and the Ministry of Long Term Care for taking this great step toward improving the level of care in our sector!” – The Board of Management for Eastholme. 

“We welcome the government’s commitment to change the province’s long term care sector, improving the quality of care and quality of life for our residents,” said Wentworth Graham, Owner of Nipissing Manor.

“We are grateful for this staffing investment by the Government of Ontario, which will have a positive impact at Waters Edge Care community, and in care communities across Ontario. We at Sienna welcome every opportunity to further strengthen the care provided to our residents, as that care is at the center of who we are as a company,” said Nitin Jain, President and CEO of Sienna Senior Living. “This funding, combined with the redevelopment of Ontario’s oldest care communities, and the strengthening of legislation and regulations, are all bringing the positive transformation needed in the sector.”

“This is extremely welcome news at Cassellholme as we work to grow our levels of care towards a minimum of four hours of care per resident, per day, which is the new benchmark for best practice for long-term care in Ontario. Further, as a City Council member this also benefits the citizens of North Bay as it significantly reduces Cassellholme’s reliance on the Municipal levy,” said Chris Mayne, Board Chair of Cassellholme.

“We have seen significant demographic changes over the past few years in caring for residents with increasingly complex needs.  Our funding and staffing compliments have not kept pace with these needs.  We are truly pleased with this announcement and hope it will allow the Algonquin Nursing Home to recruit, hire, and retain more staff so that we can continue to improve the quality of care that our Residents so deserve!” said Amy Morrison, VP Corporate Services & CFO of the Algonquin Nursing Home.

Seniors entering long-term care today are older and have more complex medical needs than they did just a decade ago. The level of care residents need has increased dramatically, but the amount of care they receive each day has not. In the nine years, between 2009 and 2018, the amount of care each resident received, by all providers, per day increased by only 22 minutes. Our government, over the span of four years, will increase direct hours of care by 1 hour and 21 minutes.

The government is investing $4.9 billion over four years to boost direct resident care to an average of four hours daily by increasing care staff by more than 27,000 people. Hiring thousands of new staff at long-term homes and increasing the amount of care they deliver each year will be made possible by annual funding increases to homes:

• $270 million in 2021-22
• $673 million in 2022-23
• $1.25 billion in 2023-24
• $1.82 billion in 2024-25

QUICK FACTS

• Ontario now has over 24,000 new and 19,000 upgraded beds in the development pipeline — which means more than 80 percent of the 30,000 net new beds being delivered are in the planning, construction and opening stages of the development process.
• In 2021-22, the province invested $200 million to train up to 16,200 additional personal support workers through publicly-assisted colleges, private career colleges and district school boards.
• In 2021-22, the province also invested $35M to add up to 2,000 additional nursing students at publicly-assisted colleges and universities across the province, for the Fall 2021 and Winter 2022 incoming cohorts.