LITTLE CURRENT-The funding outlook for long term care nursing homes from the province does not look good for now or on the future, says the chair of the Manitoulin Centennial Manor. However, despite its annual funding is being cut, Pat MacDonald says there will be no changes in the excellent care provided to residents, and that the Manor is in good shape financially.
“At our meeting we received some bad news in terms of funding,” said Pat MacDonald, chair of the Manor board. “Government funding in the future is not looking good. We (Manor board) had been expecting a two percent increase in funding from the province this year we are only receiving a one percent increase, and there is structural compliance revenue in which we normally receive $5,500 a month but this year, as of August 1 (2019) ,we will no longer be receiving this funding. That will mean an overall $27,000 negative impact to our nursing home this year, and next year it will mean a decrease of a little over $76,000 in funding.”
“This is a huge impact and we are undertaking a lot of brainstorming,” said Ms. MacDonald. “We have to look at our capital plan and where we can make modifications. We are even more pleased that we had previously decided to go with putting funds regularly into reserves each month that we can pull from.”
However, “all of this will mean we will have to delay some of the things we had been planning to get done,” said Ms. MacDonald who stressed, “but all of this does not mean there will be any changes in any way in the quality of care that we provide to our residents. And it will not mean any staffing cuts.”
“The government obviously wants to cut their deficit and save money, but they are doing it on the backs of our most vulnerable group. Every long-term care facility will be hit like ours in less funding, but less places to draw funds from,” said Ms. MacDonald.
“With the news from the province we will be delaying a few things we had been looking at doing, for instance buying new a oven for the kitchen and elevator work, which is strictly cosmetic and does not affect the safety of the residents or staff,” continued Ms. MacDonald. “And we will have to look at where we sit in October. We have been trying to be proactive in terms of capital capital projects etc. but this puts us on a different path. But we’re still going forward with the HVAC improvements for instance.”
She added, “we are in good shape budget wise, and we currently have a surplus that we can draw from.”
