NDP pledge 1,000 new care-home beds

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This article was published 24/03/2016 (3489 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A re-elected New Democrat government would create 1,000 new personal care-home beds and improve palliative care, Greg Selinger said Thursday.

He said the new beds would include 100 devoted to patients with dementia at a facility in St. James, more than 100 at the Convalescent Home of Winnipeg, more than 75 at Riverside Lions Seniors Residences in St. Vital and more beds in rural communities.

Selinger said the 1,000 new beds would be over and above the 400 those that have already been announced, tendered or under construction. He promised that projects encompassing all the new beds would at least be announced — if not completed — over the next four years.

“These things take time. We have good partnerships in the community. But we believe we can get all of the thousand units allocated over the next four years. But they won’t necessarily all be built and opened in the next four years,” the NDP leader said.

Selinger said the NDP would issue a call for proposals for additional community-built-and-owned, non-profit PCH facilities, including one in the North.

He also promised to create new hospice beds and fund a new research chair in palliative care at the University of Manitoba.

Selinger made the announcement on a three-acre parcel of land at 1476 Portage Ave, where the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority would like to build a nursing home facility.

The Progressive Conservatives were quick to react to the announcement, saying the NDP under Selinger has failed to create enough personal care home beds.

They said that in the years Selinger has been premier (since 2009) the NDP has only built 20 nursing home beds a year, compared to 90 a year under Gary Doer. 

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“This is a crisis,” the PCs said in a statement. “Waiting for a personal care home bed is putting unnecessary pressure on hospitals and emergency rooms.

There are more than 1,200 Manitobans waiting for a personal care home bed and the wait time for a bed in southeastern Manitoba is more than six months, the Tories said.

Selinger said while adding 1,000 new nursing home beds will provide a “gigantic” boost to the system, government will also have to provide more assisted living and supportive housing units and keep improving home care to meet the needs of an aging population.

He said that a previous Tory regime considered privatizing home care, something the NDP would never consider.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca