Caring for seniors cheaper at Avens
Expanding old-age home could lighten load on GNWT purse, says one MLA
Evan Kiyoshi French
Northern News Services
Friday, June 12, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Long-term care beds are in high demand in the city, and the cost of caring for the growing number of seniors is complicated by the fact that the Avens Community for Seniors is full.
Frame Lake MLA Wendy Bisaro stands in front of the site where Avens Community for Seniors hopes to put its expanded long-term care facilities. The build has stalled because the GNWT won't provide financial backing to get the project completed because its concerned about having to cover operational costs, said Bisaro. - Evan Kiyoshi French/NNSL photo |
Yellowknifer asked the Department of Health and Social Services (HSS) to compare the cost of caring for a person at the seniors home with caring for the same person in one of 20 long-term care beds at Stanton Territorial Hospital. The result shows the seniors home is a much cheaper option. But a plan to expand the Avens facility has stalled, since it lacks financial backing to continue the build that would add around 30 beds to the home's long-term care facility.
Patients at the seniors home pay $25 per day to stay in the 28-bed dementia facility and in the 29-bed long-term care facility, according to an e-mail from health department spokesperson Damien Healy.
The GNWT puts up $373 each day for dementia beds and $341 per day for long-term beds at the home, stated Healy. Staying in one of 20 beds in the hospital's medicine unit - for patients with respiratory conditions, diabetes and neurological disorders - costs the territory $756 per day.
Beds in the 12-bed extended care unit in the hospital - for patients with complex issues requiring 24-hour nursing care - costs $1,050 per day, stated Healy. The hospital's extended care unit cares for people needing level five long-term care, said Healy, meaning the patients require medical supervision from health professionals. Avens' long-term care facility is for people requiring long-term care levels three and four who cannot live independently and require constant nursing care. There are two beds vacant in the hospital's extended care unit, stated Healy.
Frame Lake MLA Wendy Bisaro said the territorial government is well aware of the cost difference between the two facilities. It costs more to keep patients at the hospital but expanding the seniors home still isn't part of the GNWT's current capital plan. She said when MLAs ask the health minister when expanding Avens Community for Seniors will be prioritized the answer they get is that there isn't enough money.
"The bottom line to me is the answer is money," she said. "There's no quote 'money for capital' or quote 'money for operations.'"
She said the argument centres around the fact that if the GNWT were to back the $28-million expansion it'd have to cover operating costs.
"We have to find a solution that allows Avens to go ahead and build," she said. "It's cheaper to have Avens build the facility and then run it. The arguments against that I've heard are, 'once the GNWT backs the facility ... then the GNWT is on the hook for the operating costs.'"
It's an argument that doesn't carry weight over the long term, said Bisaro.
"It's something the government needs to take in stride and say ... what are our priorities? I'm not happy right now with the government priorities of seniors care. We are building facilities in communities ... but there's a need here too and it's getting ignored."
Health Minister Glen Abernethy, who is also minister responsible for seniors and persons with disabilities, did not respond to requests for comment before press time. Abernethy told the legislative assembly on May 27 the GNWT has provided Avens with $25,000 to participate in working groups to move the project along. He said the government has a working group working to "advance the partners to the GNWT's capital planning process." He said there are no "simple answers" and much analysis and work needs to take place before the project moves forward.
"I know the Avens is frustrated with the progress, as are we," he said.
Bisaro said the government has been slow to recognize a trend that started about 20 years ago. More people have been setting down roots in the city instead of leaving after a few years.
"When I first came in 1971, people were coming for a year or two and then going," she said. "That was my thought too, but I never left. We have people who have now lived here definitely the majority of their lives. My personal view is that this is my home and I don't want to go somewhere else. There are a lot of older people now who feel that way. Their children are here, this is where they live."
Cost comparison per patient at Avens and Stanton Hospital
Cost per bed per day / Portion patient pays per day
Stanton Territorial Hospital Medical Inpatient Unit
- $756.28 /resident pays nothing
Stanton Hospital Extended care Unit
- $1,050.65 / resident pays $25.38
Avens Cottages Dementia Facility
- $398 / resident pays $25.38
Avens Manor Long-Term Care Facility
- $366.98 / resident pays $25.38
Source: Department of Health and Social Services
