WELLINGTON ‒ According to the county's Strategic Plan, long-term care waitlists across the county are only going to get longer without additional support from the province.
"The waitlist across Wellington County’s Long-Term Care facilities is getting longer as more support is needed," said the report. "This growing need is not expected to slow down in the coming years."
Explaining "more support" refers to the proposed continuum of care project at Wellington Place, the county's long-term care home administrator Suzanne Dronick said projects like these help seniors to age in place.
This model allows seniors to select the kind of housing that best serves them while providing services and amenities that will allow them to remain independent and supported as their needs increase.
"Seniors can often stay in their home longer if they have care/support provided in the home," said Dronick, over email. "When a senior has support services in their home, they often do not need communal living (ie. LTC) as soon or at all."
The province's long-term care performance portal says there are currently 623 people on the wait list to get a spot at Wellington Terrace in Centre Wellington, leading to an average median wait time of 513 days, the longest wait time in the county.
Wellington Terrace has 176 beds.
Several months longer than the provincial average, the waitlist number shrinks to just over a month if a bed is required from the hospital.
"(When an eligible individual is) waiting in the community or hospital longer, a strain can be placed on families to provide the 24hr nursing care needed while awaiting a bed," said Dronick, over email.
Looking at the median data across the county, on average, residents wait 306 days for an LTC bed.
Caressant Care Harriston currently has the lowest non-hospital related wait time at 167 days while Caressant Care Fergus is 201 days and Morriston Park Nursing Home is 258.
“Indirectly, (the province's) proposed continuum of care could help the Terrace waitlist by supporting seniors to age in place and potentially not need long-term care as soon or at all,” said Dronick, over email.
Last year, the province announced a plan for over 1,300 new and over 600 upgraded long-term beds in Ontario.
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
