Province wants to hear from families about long-term care

Staffing levels in long-term care homes continues to be an issue in Saskatchewan.

The Saskatchewan Party government announced Thursday it would be “asking residents and their families more directly how long-term care is performing across the province.”

That move comes on the heels of the province doing a resident and family experience survey, which had more than 2,700 residents and 2,400 family members respond.

According to the province, that survey showed 88 per cent of residents and 83 per cent of family members are generally satisfied with the homes. Starting in the 2018-19 budget year, that survey will be done every two years. The survey will be looked at by the newly formed Saskatchewan Health Authority, which will also continue to do CEO tours of facilities around the province.

But the 2017 reports showed concerns with a variety of issues, including staffing levels, wandering residents and aging infrastructure.

In Regina, recruitment and retention of staff, access to alternative levels of care, lack of menu choices and activities as well as aging infrastructure and maintenance costs were all listed as issues.

Saskatoon had similar issues with recruitment and maintenance, but also listed a “need for expert palliative care resources and support to better meet the growing need to provide care to complex palliative care residents.”

An urgent issues action fund was created by the province in 2013 to address issues like these raised in the CEO tours. In 2013, the fund was given $13.84 million.

“These reports are saying the same thing that we’ve been hearing from seniors and their families over and over again; long-term care in Saskatchewan is dangerously understaffed and our parents and grand-parents — the women and men who helped build this province — are not getting the care they need and deserve to stay healthy and live with dignity,” said NDP health critic Danielle Chartier in a statement.