A New Brunswick seniors advocate says long-term care home waiting lists are at their highest level ever.
Cecile Cassista, executive director of the Coalition for Seniors, says over 1,000 seniors are waiting to get into homes, including more than 500 in hospital.
“I was alarmed and I thought there’s something wrong with these figures. I went back and I checked my records way back to 2017 and this is the highest. It is really, really out of control,” says Cassista.
She says the government needs to look at streamlining the assessment process and getting people out of the hospital as quickly as possible.
“The homes give [seniors] an opportunity to have a quality of life. A quality of life does not exist in the hospital. There’s no stimulation. There are no programs for them,” Cassista adds.
She adds that she has been saying for more than 20 years that the system is broken in New Brunswick, and we need a home care program that works.
“There are programs across this country, in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, that work well. I think, and I strongly urge all parties to take a look at those programs,” Cassista states.
She says having hundreds of seniors in hospitals is impacting our healthcare system to the tune of between $800 and $1,000 a day, and many seniors don’t want to be in hospital.
“They want to be in their community. It is a cost factor all the way around, and I think that because we don’t fall under the Department of Health, there’s no pressure to get them out of the hospital,” she says.
“We are under social development, not like other provinces. I’m hoping that the government will actually lay out a vision and start caring for the workers and value them and value our seniors on a personal level.”
She adds family members are frustrated that the Government of New Brunswick can’t get the system moving faster to get their loved ones in a placement.
“If something isn’t done soon, things will continue to get worse. We’re seeing little steps, and those steps are not very big,” Cassista stresses.
