Health Minister Randy Delorey says it’s too early to know whether all long-term care rooms in Nova Scotia deserve to be occupied by a single person, or even imaginable, before a wave of COVID-19.
On Thursday, Delorey told reporters that his branch was awaiting the effects of two reviews, one in particular aimed at the Northwood outbreak and the other aimed at infection prevention and anywhere for long-term care.
The outbreak at Northwood in Halifax resulted in the deaths of 53 citizens. A total of 246 citizens and 99 members tested positive for COVID-19.
Both exams expire the month. Only recommendations will be made public.
As for preparing for what might happen, the minister said that much of the cades that took up the first wave of the pandemic will simply continue. This will come with public aptitude requirements and policy adjustments within individual sites, and from the industry in general, for problems such as infection control.
“These things we did, that we learned on the first wave, are actually there to prepare for the moment [wave],” he said.
Policies will be replaced and updated as public fitness officials collect more data on the disease, along with the effects of any of the reviews, he said.
Delorey said his branch seeks to strike a balance between the fight against COVID-19 and the fact that there are a limited number of functions in the formula and that other people want attention. This is declining in the context of an increasing number of people taking acute care hospital beds while waiting for long-term care placement.
“I don’t know if it would be practical, again, in a short period of time, to move [completely] to single rooms.”
Prime Minister Stephen McNeil’s government has yet to build a new singles long-term care bed since joining the workplace in 2013, and chose to focus on expanding home care services.
Although the government has announced plans for new beds in parts of the province, none will be open until a possible wave of COVID-19 arrives this fall.
“We want to place capacity within existing infrastructure,” the minister said.
Delorey said his branch is contemplating other options, such as partnerships with the personal sector similar to the previous announcement this year of 23 authorized beds used on a land at a Shannex facility in Bedford.
The ministry has sent a request for data to the long-term care sector, as officials are trying to request proposals to assess whether similar opportunities exist to help build capacity in the short term.
The Minister noted that vacancies were maintained in Northwood to help the site area address any other COVID-19 cases. Northwood, the largest long-term focus in the province, also has the highest number of double and triple rooms.
NDP leader Gary Burrill said he was still concerned about the government issue.
The NDP issued a press release on Thursday stating that a recent request for data filed through the party resulted in a reaction indicating that the government does not or does not track the number of long-term care citizens in dormitories.
“This, in my opinion, demonstrates deep forgetfulness and failure to provide long-term care with the sense of precedence they have in the hearts of the people of Nova Scotia,” Burrill told reporters outside the province house.
He said he was concerned about the growing number of others waiting in intensive care beds for long-term care placement to become available.
“And it’s all the other people who pay the rates for the retirement homes, the rates of the long-term care facility, to get in this situation,” he said.
“So I think we have to ask ourselves, “Does this attention meet the criteria of care that we have as … for those who receive long-term care? “And I think the answer is not. “
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