P.E.I. and Ottawa earmark $29M for measures 'to help Islanders age with dignity'
The federal and provincial governments are giving details of how $29 million will be spent over the next five years to improve health care for Island seniors, by investing in measures like home-based wound care and mobile X-ray units.
Cardigan MP Lawrence MacAualy and P.E.I. Health Minister Mark McLane made the announcement at Riverview Manor in Montague, saying the deal will mean better access to home, community and long-term care.
The money is part of a $94 million federal-provincial agreement first announced in December 2023.
McLane said a primary focus of the agreement is to help seniors age at home for as long as possible before they enter a long-term care facility.
P.E.I. Health Minister Mark McLane says new mobile X-ray units will let patients be assessed at long-term care homes, rather than having to be taken to a hospital to be X-rayed. (Tony Davis/CBC)
"We do have an aging population … and we do have some capacity issues, so this will allow us to expand some of our facilities — expand our home-care facilities," he said.
"Patients would like to stay home as long as possible, and I think that's where they belong. So this funding allows us to do that."
Money from the "Aging with Dignity agreement" will help pay for P.E.I.'s five-year action plan to improve health care for seniors.
Some of the goals include:
Increasing access to home-care services, including palliative care, that brings licensed practical nurses, registered nurses and paramedics together to provide acute care services at home. The government expects this service will help meet the needs of up to 1,450 seniors through interventions like advanced wound care in their own homes
Hiring additional health providers like occupational, physical, and recreational therapists to provide services in private long-term care homes to improve the wellness and quality of life of residents.
Expanding the implementation of InterRAI to 10 private long-term care facilities. That's a digital platform used to assess individual health needs when triaging people who might no longer be able to live in their own homes.
Increasing long-term care bed capacity and enabling the provision of long-term care services to residents in more places, including rural communities, while assisting with comparable infection prevention and control.
Launching mobile X-ray units across the Island's long-term care sector to provide timely access to care and reduce the demand on patients transfers between care settings.
MacAulay said the home and palliative-care funding is important to many Island seniors who want the option of receiving care outside of a hospital setting, something that also decreases the burden on the health-care system.
Cardigan MP Lawrence MacAulay says many Island seniors want the option of staying in their homes longer. (Tony Davis/CBC)
"Without a doubt, it saves government a lot of money if you provide the service at home. And you'll find that many people want the service at home," he said.
"Pain is awful and [there's] so many things that you have to deal with as a senior. It's so important to make the quality of life better, and that's what we're doing."
McLane, meanwhile, singled out the mobile X-ray units as a way to provide patients with services inside a long-term care setting, rather than coping with the disruption of being transported to hospital.
The P.E.I. government is also adding 50 new long-term care beds to privately run facilities in order to free up hospital space.
McLane said some of the funding in this plan will go toward that expansion, as well as ensuring wage parity for workers in those private homes.
"In the [government's] long-term care review, it's very specific about making sure that playing field is equal between those two [types of] facilities," he said.
"Wage parity would be the first investment that we make to ensure that the staffing stays in that facility and they don't move from private to public, so it gives some stability toward that."
