Sites announced for 2 long-term care centres in central Newfoundland

The provincial government has announced the locations for two, 60-bed, long-term care facilties in central Newfoundland.

In Grand Falls-Windsor, Scott Avenue between Valley Road and the site of the former Abitibi Consolidated mill will be home to the new building.

The problems with the acute sector, the fix for those, will come by looking into long-term care.- Health Minister John Haggie

In Gander, the facility will be built next next to the College of the North Atlantic campus, and accessible via Magee Road.

"We have one of the oldest demographics anywhere in the country, and we are aging faster on average than other jurisdictions," said Premier Dwight Ball following a news conference on Tuesday.

"We have the responsibility to make sure that we deliver those services as close to home as possible, in their own homes when possible but in some cases, they actually need infrastructure like long-term care sites."

While the specific locations were unveiled on Tuesday, government's plan to build the facilities had been announced last year.

Construction to start next year

Close to 200 public service employees will be needed to staff the two centres, according to a media release issued by government Tuesday. Construction is expected to begin in 2019.

The companies thatwill be involved in the designing, building and maintenance of the new facilities are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

Health Minister John Haggiesaid the province's aging populationand high rate of chronic diseasesis posing a challenge to the health system that new long-term care beds can fix.

"The problems with the acute sector, the fix for those, will come by looking into long-term care," he said Tuesday.

"A lot of the problems in the acute sector with wait times are people are there because they can't get into places where they can get the care they need. Places like Botwood and the Hugh Twomey centre."

Ball, Haggie, and other MHAs were in central Newfoundland Tuesday for several health-related announcements. Along with the unveiling of two long-term care sites, the provincial government also announced it has reached another step in the design of an extension to the protective care unit at the Dr. Hugh TwomeyCentre in Botwood.

That protective care unit is designed to safely treat patients with symptoms of dementia, and that type ofspace is in high demand in central Newfoundland, according to Haggie.

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