N.B. nursing home waitlist continues to grow, with more seniors waiting in hospital

More seniors waiting for long term care in N.B. The number of seniors in New Brunswick hospitals waiting for long term care is growing.

The waitlist of New Brunswickers looking for a nursing home bed has grown by over 200 people since January, including an increase of over 100 waiting in hospital, according to numbers provided by the Coalition for Seniors and Nursing Home Residents’ Rights.

In January, the waitlist was 901, with 421 waiting in hospital. In July, the list was 1,106, with 535 in hospital.

“The longer you languish in a hospital bed, your health condition changes, but they're just not listening. And I'm not so sure that, you know, the numbers are going to be lower again in August,” said coalition executive director Cecile Cassista.

Horizon Health’s CEO said in August that 35 per cent of hospital beds were being used by alternate level of care patients. Most are waiting for long-term care but are not safe to return home.

Hospital capacity also remains high, the health network said Friday.

Cassista says she’s getting more and more calls from families, looking for help and guidance.

“They’re frustrated. They want to get their loved ones out of the hospital setting, but it's not working. And so we've been pushing for home care, and that's what should be happening. We should be actually concentrating and having home care in the community so that, you know, the loved ones can be close to their friends and family,” Cassita said.

She’d also like to see the assessment process for seniors in hospital improved to help shorten their hospital stay. The coalition has been asking for the process to be considered under health, rather than social development.

“We're the only province that falls under social development. So the process to get someone assessed is done by the hospital doctors, extramural discharge planning, and then the file goes over to social development, which takes months,” Cassita said.

Seniors’ advocate Kelly Lamrock released a report investigating senior care in N.B. in March, called ‘What we all want.’ It outlined why an overhaul is needed to ensure the safety and viability of the province’s long-term care system, and warned if urgent action isn’t taken, the cost to people’s health and the bottom line would continue to spiral.

One of the recommendations in the report was to come up with a plan to accelerate the movement of alternate level care patients out of hospital and into long-term care by June.

Six months later, Lamrock says nothing’s been done on that specific recommendation and the numbers are moving in the wrong direction. He said he believes the issue, if improved, could have a real impact on other areas of concern within healthcare.

“You really can't be serious about fixing the health care system until you address how many beds are currently occupied by people who should be in long term care,” Lamrock said. “That's why there are people in hallways who need urgent care. That's why the wait times are high. That's why professionals are getting older, right? That's a big part of why it is driving additional costs, like having to see nurses on such an urgent basis. You wind up overpaying for traveling nurses.

The coalition expects waitlist numbers for August to be released next week.

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