This article was previously published on GuelphToday.
An unexpected turn of events for residents and staff at a Guelph nursing home.
LaPointe-Fisher Nursing Home – a private for-profit facility on Metcalfe Street – will cease operations as of Nov. 29, leaving over 100 staff members looking for a job and its residents looking for a new place to live.
As of March 4, the Ministry of Long-Term Care says there are 92 licensed beds in the home and 149 people are on the waiting list.
Due to COVID-19 rules around beds per ward, the home has been utilizing 69 of those 92 beds.
Staff and residents were told Wednesday of the move.
"Shock and dismay. Utter shock," said Lisa Sharp, an essential caregiver to her partner Cathy, one of the residents living at the home.
She said something like this "was never ever on the radar," citing a meeting a couple weeks ago with the administrator. Much of the talk, Sharp added, was about a new building.
"We were talking about the things we were going to get, and hopefully get," she said. "Everything was so upbeat."
“It came right out of the blue. It’s not like this was expected,” added Dwayne Elliott, a maintenance assistant who has worked at the home for 15 years.
“They’ve been talking for years, since I started here, of a new build, that a new structure was going to go up, possibly even on this property again. Everybody really figured it was sort of a guarantee (of) the lifespan here.”
He said as you would expect, many in the building shed some tears upon learning of the move.
“It is an industry where you care for your residents," he said. "So a lot of people are very emotional.”
He said the announcement was a shock to the staff, many of whom have been around for the over 40 year existence of the facility.
The home’s director of quality improvement states the closure is due to the age of the building and the investments needed to maintain its state of repair “are not achievable in the current economic situation.”
Shane Outridge said the decision was made “with the safety and security of our residents being our highest priority.”
“In addition, the logistics of installing additional fire sprinklers by January 1, 2025, as required for all long-term care homes, has proved difficult with the structural aspects of our aging building,” Outridge said in an emailed statement.
“Due to a combination of other factors such as our upcoming license expiry, substantial increases in costs of construction, and health human resource challenges, we are forced to make the difficult decision to close our home.”
LaPointe-Fisher has been around since 1982, but the building was constructed in 1972.
Outridge said the home is working with the Ministry of Long-Term Care, Ontario Health and Home and Community Care Support Services throughout the process.
“We will be working carefully with local placement services and long-term care homes to help our residents transition to a destination of their choice,” he said.
“We are also planning ways to support our staff, to encourage them to remain with us until we close and to support them in finding gainful employment.”
For Elliott, who turns 62 this summer, he’s on the fence on what his next steps will be.
Whether it is to find a new place to work for a couple years until retirement, or go right into retirement.
For Sharp, she has reached out to all three levels of government, launching a campaign to save the home from closure.
"It's home," she said. "There's no other way to describe it. It's home. Everybody is family. The staff are family."
Emily Showdra, who has been living at the home for seven years, agreed it was a shock.
But she is thankful the closure date isn't until November.
"I'm sure that whatever (the future holds), we'll be okay," she said. "We have enough time to find something. I don't think we'll be left out in the cold."
Showdra said she isn't waiting until the last minute, and has already begun the search for a new home, including at a few homes she previously checked out before heading to LaPointe-Fisher.
GuelphToday has reached out to the Ontario Long Term Care Association, as well as the County of Wellington for comment.
