More long-term care beds needed to sustain aging population: report

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This article was published 27/11/2017 (2882 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Canada needs 43,000 new long-term care beds in the next five years if it plans to adequately care for its aging population, according to a new report from the Conference Board of Canada.

According to the report, such demand will only keep growing and is expected to reach nearly 200,000 by 2035, barring any major changes to how health providers are delivering seniors’ care. That’s almost double the current number of long-term beds across the country.

“The key takeaway is the need for a rethink of infrastructure needs for seniors,” said Louis Thériault, vice-president of public policy with the Conference Board of Canada, a not-for-profit think tank. Part of that means increasing the number of long-term care beds available to people, but he said it also means providing additional supports for home-care services and an increased reliance on technology.

The Conference Board of Canada’s most recent forecast takes into account concerted efforts by governments and health authorities to move more seniors out of hospitals and back into their own homes. Still, Thériault said, that only does so much given the sheer volume of baby boomers becoming — or soon-to-become — seniors.

Long-term care beds aren’t cheap. By the report’s calculations, the cost to operate one single bed on an annual basis is $75,000 — and that’s after construction. To build a long-term care bed costs roughly $320,000. That means Canadians can expect to spend $64 billion to build beds between now and 2035 and $130 billion over the same time frame to operate them.

While that’s a significant amount of money, the Conference Board of Canada said it will have its upsides given more support workers will be required for staffing purposes. At that spending level, the report indicates the country could see an average real GDP boost of $12 billion annually.

It’s part of “rethinking how we care for the aging population,” Thériault said. “Hospitals should be the last point of entry in the system, not the first.”

It’s unfortunate seniors still often end up in emergency rooms simply because there’s nowhere else for them to go, he said, but he’s more optimistic now than he was five years ago that’s changing. In particular, he noted an increase in provincial strategies to try to move senior patients out of hospitals and into their homes and personal care homes.

Manitoba Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen said Monday his government is aware of the issue and working on adding 258 personal care beds to the system.

jane.gerster@freepress.mb.ca