Province had no choice but to take over care home set to close: health minister

Manitoba’s health-care system can’t afford to lose a single personal care home bed right now, said the minister who took the “extraordinary step” of expropriating a 78-bed for-profit facility that was set to close by April.

“From our perspective and the perspective of the regional health authority, every single personal care home bed in this province needs to be open,” Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said in an interview Tuesday.

On Monday, the province announced it was taking over Golden Door Geriatric Centre on Pembina Highway, which stopped accepting new residents last year and had 25 vacant beds as of Jan. 30.

“This is where seniors live. This is their home and, at any time of year, that’s the priority,” Asagwara said. “But certainly during our most pressured and busiest time of year in the health-care system — flu season — having 25 beds remain closed is just not a responsible way to approach the operations of a personal care home.”

Premier Wab Kinew said care homes are a vital part of a health-care system that relies on “patient flow” in emergency rooms and the availability of hospital beds.

“You need to ensure that, for you to be seen relatively quickly, the people who showed up earlier are able to find a bed afterwards,” the premier said Tuesday during an event in Churchill. “They always talk about patient flow and bed block — what it means is you have to give people dignified care in the right space. For Manitoba to address our health-care needs, we need more personal care home beds.”

Kinew blamed the previous Tory government for closing beds and said his government was starting to turn things around.

“Us taking action about this one Golden Door personal care home is going to open 25 more beds. We probably need 10 times that amount. This is not something that can be rectified overnight,” he said.

Asagwara said Golden Door Geriatric Centre would welcome 25 new residents in the next week or two. The decision to expropriate was made after the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority worked with the owners and “really tried to have an outcome here that would see this personal care home still be operational and still remain the home for these seniors,” Asagwara said.

“This is a private, for-profit business that wanted to get out of the business of personal care homes,” the minister said.

When that became clear, the government had no choice but to take it over.

“We recognize that we have to take an extraordinary step and intervene… We’re not going to allow a personal care home to close.”

Asagwara said the financial arrangement between the province and care home was still being worked out.

It’s good news for the Golden Door’s 70 unionized employees who knew since the summer that the owners wanted out. They learned Monday the WRHA was taking over.

“We hope that this will bring some stability to the residents and the workers who work with them,” Kyle Ross, president of the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union, said in an email. “These members care deeply about their work and the people they support.”

The Manitoba Seniors Equity Action Coalition wants the province to provide more affordable long-term care and assisted living facilities, which start at nearly $4,000 a month and are unaffordable for many seniors on fixed incomes.

“The private sector knows they can make a lot of money off of assisted living for middle class and upper-income seniors,” coalition spokesman Tom Simms said. “That’s great, we’re really glad that they can do that.”

Simms said the government needs to provide more options for people like his 96-year-old mother and others of her generation who rely on old age security and the guaranteed income supplement of less than $2,000.

“That could free up more hospital beds, along with providing a better quality of life for low- and fixed-income seniors.”

The non-profit sector warned Tuesday that the stability of care homes and their residents is at risk without operational funding increases from the province.

“Current funding has not kept pace with rising costs for food, utilities, medical supplies, critical infrastructure repairs, and staffing shortfalls,” said Gladys Hrabi of the Manitoba Association for Residential and Community Care Homes for Everyone.

That residents of Golden Door are safe and their care is steady and consistent is what matters most, she said.

“But the reality is, many non-profit care homes are under significant financial strain. If funding doesn’t become more sustainable, we’re going to keep seeing instability across long-term care, and that will affect everyone.”

Asagwara said the NDP have given “substantial” funding increases to personal care homes since being elected in 2023.

Tory health critic Kathleen Cook said the province is to blame for the Golden Door situation.

“They wouldn’t be in the position of having to expropriate this home if they hadn’t driven up costs for personal care homes without also increasing their operating funding to cover those costs,” said Cook.

“Property taxes have gone up. Hydro’s going up. Manitoba leads the country in food inflation. All of these costs are going up and you’ve got a lot of personal care homes who are now operating at a deficit.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca