Long-term care group
says care dollars made
a difference
Friday February 14, 2003 Roderick Benns
Last year's funding increase in long-term care was used appropriately, says the Ontario Long Term Care Association (OLTCA), contrary to an NDP press release that questioned the destination of care dollars.

Earlier in the week, NDP health critic Shelley Martel said that "almost seven months ago, the Conservatives jacked up nursing home fees and promised better care for seniors. But they've failed to ensure that the promised 2,400 nurses and personal care givers were hired despite new funding. Both the funding and the improved care have disappeared into a black hole of unaccountability," said Martel.

The NDP then cited a list of homes that apparently had provincial funding diverted from the home and used up in other areas. For instance, they listed Extendicare in Haliburton and stated there was "no new nursing staff hired - using dollars to cover deficits, not direct care."

But the OLTCA did its own research and came up with dramatically different answers for the same homes. In the same example, their own information revealed that Extendicare in Haliburton added 14 hours of bi-weekly of registered practical nurse (RPN) time, 42 hours bi-weekly of personal support worker (PSW) time and 7.5 hours bi-weekly of clinical co-ordinator time.

"The facts are that long-term care homes received a significant injection of funding last year and it isn't enough. We're still 11th out of 11," says OLTCA executive director Karen Sullivan. Sullivan is referring to a recent government-sponsored level of service study.

In an interview with OMNIway, Sullivan says what has to be communicated clearly is the NDP's assertion that the money wasn't used properly. "This is simply false," says Sullivan.

"If we don't clarify this, it makes it that much more difficult for the government to come through with additional funding," she explains.

Following the NDP's release, the OLTCA checked with some of their members named in the release. The information they provided is substantially different than that quoted by the NDP, according to Sullivan.

"While last year's funding increase was not sufficient to bridge the gap between the care needed and care funded, it did allow providers to begin to take a small step toward this," the OLTCA noted in its press release.

Another example from the NDP press release stated that Leisureworld in North Bay used the new nursing dollars for equipment such as wheelchairs and incontinence supplies. However, when the OLTCA contacted the home, they found out Leisureworld had added 48 extra hours per week for registered nurses and 189 hours per week for personal support workers. They also did not purchase any wheelchairs, according to the OLTCA.

The OLTCA has written to the NDP with their concerns about the information in the party's press release. The OLTCA represents the operators of over 360 of the 550 long-term care homes in the province. The association's members include all of the different types of long-term care homes in Ontario - private, not-for-profit, charitable and municipal - that provide care and accommodation to over 36,000 residents.

"We expect the government will do a survey of its own in the province, to ask homes what they have done with the additional funding," Sullivan told OMNIway.

"We expect this will bear out what we are saying in our press release - that the additional funding has indeed gone to care and that there is a great need for more dollars, too," she adds.

To read about how OMNI has allocated the new funding, click here.