The Ontario government officially announced millions of dollars in additional funding for Oxford County long-term care homes Monday as part of a provincewide effort to increase staffing levels.
The Ontario government officially announced millions of dollars in additional funding for Oxford County long-term care homes Monday as part of a provincewide effort to increase staffing levels.
The new money – roughly $5.7 million – will be split between eight long-term care facilities in Woodstock, Ingersoll, Tillsonburg and Tavistock, the province said in its announcement. The intent of the investment is to ensure long-term care residents receive an overage of four hours of direct care per day by 2024-25.
“This funding will allow homes in our community to hire and retain more staff, so they can provide more care to residents every day,” Oxford OPP Ernie Hardeman said in a press release.
“This is part of our government’s plan to hire thousands of new staff over the next four years to ensure those living in long-term care get the high-quality care they need and deserve.”
Seniors entering long-term care today are often older and have more complex medical needs than they did just 10 years ago, the release stated. While the level of care needed by many residents has increased sharply during that decade, the amount of care received each day has not kept pace, provincial officials acknowledged. In the past decade or so, residents only received an increase of 22 minutes per day in direct care, officials said.
“We know that more qualified staff means more daily care for residents,” said Paul Calandra, the province’s minister of long-term care, in the release. “Hiring more staff is part of our government’s plan to fix long-term care and to improve the quality of care residents receive and the quality of life they experience.”
With this – and future funding – the Ontario government said the intend to increase direct hours of care by one hour and 21 minutes.
This funding announcement is part of a provincial commitment to invest $4.9 billion over four years to increase direct resident care to an average of four hours a day by hiring more than 27,000 new long-term care staff. In addition to the $270 million earmarked for 2021-22, the province has promised $673 million in 2022-23, $1/25 billion in 2023-24 and $1.82 billion in 2024-25.
Oxford County funding
- Caressing Care in Woodstock: $1,159,944
- Maple Manor Nursing Home in Tillsonburg: $880,860
- peopleCare in Tavistock: $715,152
- Secord Trails Care Community in Ingersoll: $627,936
- Maples Home for Seniors in Tavistock: $305,256
- Woodingford Lodge in Ingersoll: $296,520
- Woodingford Lodge in Tillsonburg: $296,520
- Woodingford Lodge in Woodstock: $1,395,420