P.E.I. announces funding for 54 new long-term care beds, with bed fees to rise 29%

It camelater than some expected, but the province finally released details on how it will address the shortage of long-term care beds on the Island.

Health Minister Mark McLane announced an investment of almost $25 million for private long-term care operators in the P.E.I. Legislature on Wednesday.

The announcement comes nearly two months after it was promised inPremier DennisKing'sstate-of-the-province address in February.

In that speech, King announced his government would pay for54 private new long-term care bedson the Island within 30 days after their licenses are approved.

WATCH |P.E.I. tofund54 long-term care bedsatnine facilities:

P.E.I. to fund 54 long-term care beds at nine facilities

5 months ago

Duration 5:47

Health Minister Mark McLane gave more details April 10 about a plan P.E.I.'s Premier announced in February to add 54 new private long-term care beds in the province. But the Opposition says it's too little, too late.

The deal will include opening 54 new beds in the coming months;raising wages for private-facility workers to narrow their wage gap with public employees; and grants and financing programs to help open up the new spaces for patients.

The new beds will be located at nine of the Island's long-term care facilities:

• Andrews of Park West, inCharlottetown
• Andrews of Stratford
• Clinton View Lodge, in Kensington
• Garden Home,in Charlottetown
• John GillisMemorial Lodge, in Belfast
• The Mount Continuing Care,in Charlottetown
• P.E.I. Atlantic BaptistHome, in Charlottetown
• South Shore Villa, inCrapaud
• Whisperwood Villa,in Charlottetown

The licensing process will begin immediately, McLane said.

Increasing worker wages, daily rates

As part of the renewed agreement, the daily bed rate will go up $77.55 per day, from $264.45 to $342 a nearly 30 per cent increase.

"Operators have committed to allocating at least 65 per centof the increase towards increasing wages of workers in the private homes," McLane said, "with a commitment to move towards wage comparability with the public-sector homes."

The province currently has more than 1,200 long-term care beds, split between 19 facilities,10 of them privately owned and the rest public.

The provinceprojectsit will need up to 60 additional long-term beds a year over the next decade.

'Reactionary announcement,' says Opposition

Liberal MLA Gord McNeilly said he was "underwhelmed" by Wednesday's funding announcement.

"This is a reactionary announcement," he said. "In March2022,an internal review on long-term care capacity warned that P.E.I. needed 435 beds by the next year, and now we're getting mid-50s.

"That's not good enough."

Green MLA Matt MacFarlane said the announcement seemed "recycled,"and questioned how the new beds would be staffed.

"Easy to announce the beds, easy to announce the expansions and whatnot," he said. "That's always going to be a concern on my end ... making sure that if we're making these announcements for bricks, mortar, infrastructure, whateverwhere's the human personnel coming from?"