The news that Manitoulin Lodge operator Jarlette Health Services intends to turn the long-term care facility over to the Municipality of Gore Bay is sending shock waves through the West End communities as councillors wrestle with options for a continued nursing home presence at that end of the Island.
Given the need for significant renovations to the current Lodge facilities mandated by the province to be completed by 2025, the clock is ticking quickly toward a deadline for a solution.
Given the relatively small number of beds at the current Lodge, and no sign that the province is willing to expand those numbers as they have with the Wiikwemkoong Nursing Home, the challenge is significant, but not insurmountable.
There has been intense pressure on the provincial government to reduce the size of long-term care facilities, a debate given fuel by the recent tragedies that unfolded in large institutional homes. Certainly, a one-size fits all strategy makes dollars and cents in an economies of scale perspective, but do we really want to be warehousing our most vulnerable citizens in a lowest bidder environment?
Another consideration is that, although currently there is high demand for long-term care beds that far exceeds supply, that demographic bulge will pass within a couple of decades, with the potential of leaving behind huge, underutilized facilities. Sometimes smaller can be better.
Both the Lodge and Manitoulin Centennial Manor operate well below the “magic” number (around 128ish) that the provincial government uses as a funding benchmark, leaving those institutions scrambling to provide for their residents. That is not a recipe sure to attract privately owned homes.
Both homes do a remarkable job under the circumstances, at least according to most reports from residents and their families. Waiting lists at both homes attest to the current need, and with aging populations, most Island communities have plenty of potential clients in the wings for the foreseeable future.
So, there are two viable options that come to the fore. One is to combine the Lodge and the Manor in a new municipally owned (and supported) facility that takes both sets of residents and combines them to reach the province’s magic number. Such a facility would require either the expansion of the current Manor (and yes, contrary to some reports the Manor has significant expansion room below the current facility in Little Current) or the construction of a new, modern and energy efficient facility more centrally located on the Island.
Given the need for access to a hospital site, that means Central Manitoulin is really the only other option when it comes to location.
The other option would be building smaller, less institutional nursing homes such as those being advocated by many in the industry. These would likely also require municipal support, given the unlikelihood of the province moving significantly off that economically magic number. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on one’s point of view, when it comes to governments, it is all about the numbers. But these are not numbers we are debating—these are people. Parents, grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles and, yes, children. Although we often forget, the need for intense nursing care is not always limited to the aged.
Families need to be able to visit their loved ones, whatever their age, so any solution needs to keep that critical element in mind.
One thing is clear, the hands on the clock are moving inexorably closer to that 2025 deadline. Even supposing that the provincial government would make exception for the Lodge should a viable solution be in play, the time required to build that solution would be significant. This is not an issue that can be kicked down the road. The solutions mentioned above are the most obvious—but the box isn’t getting any larger, so perhaps the solution lies somewhere outside.
Municipalities across Manitoulin need to roll up their sleeves and get working on finding a solution.
