New deal makes for happy ending

Many people are resting easier now that the threat of relocation has ended for a number of residents in a Charlottetown nursing home.

A new provincial funding formula for all nine private nursing homes in P.E.I. is welcome news for Atlantic Baptist Homes.

The deal ends the need for the long-running facility to close 41 of its 116 long-term care beds due to insufficient government funding.

Now, no beds will close.

“I think we got what we were meant to get…it’s going to meet our needs,’’ says Victor Shea, executive director of Atlantic Baptist Homes.

“It was great news for our whole operation.’’

The increased funding gives the home a secure future and the ability to invest back in the aging building, adds Shea.

“It’s an older building and we are sure to invest in things the residents need,’’ he says.

The plan to close beds at Atlantic Baptist Homes was announced last fall creating great angst for management, staff, residents and their family members.

Pat Gill feared seeing her husband Brian being forced to move to another facility, noting the upheaval would be quite unsettling.

“Very happy that it’s done,’’ she says of the deal that will keep the beds open.

“Upset that it was such a tempest in a teapot that it had to get us so worked up. It was horrible for the families to have to go through this.’’

Gill says she is very happy with the level of care her husband is receiving at Atlantic Baptist Homes.

The P.E.I. Nursing Home Association applied for arbitration in March 2017, after six months of negotiations with the province failed to find resolution.

The new four-year contract is retroactive, and expires in 2020.

The previous contract, which expired in 2016, was also settled by arbitration.

There is a single service agreement between the province and the Private Nursing Home Association, which represents all nine of the private nursing homes in the province.

The agreement provides the same per diem rate to be paid to all nine private nursing homes and requires all nine facilities to provide care to the same standards.

JIM DAY/THE GUARDIAN Mel Gass, 79, a resident of the P.E.I. Atlantic Baptist Homes in Charlottetown, chats with resident care worker Cynthia Johnston. Staff and residents were relieved to learn no beds will be closing at the private nursing home after the province reached...