Increased spending focuses on seniors
But federation not pleased as ‘nurses are suffering around the clock’
QUEBEC More in-home care. More staff and more beds at long-term care centres. And money to start on a new network of high-quality seniors’ residences.
Older Quebecers will be the major beneficiaries as the Coalition Avenir Québec government, fulfilling election promises, announced on Thursday it will spend an additional $5 billion on health and social services over the next five years. Just over half of that is for seniors.
This “substantial increase” is “vital to ensuring that our seniors receive stellar treatment, now as well as in the future,” said Finance Minister Eric Girard.
During the election campaign, the CAQ promised to boost health spending by 4.1 per cent.
Under the latest budget, it will rise by 5.4 per cent, the largest increase in a decade. But in the following two years, the hike will be 4.1 per cent. At $44.4 billion in 2019-20, the department’s budget represents almost half of Quebec’s annual expenditures.
One of the priciest measures announced Thursday involves in-home care — assistance for seniors so they can remain in their own homes for as long as possible. Services include nursing care, nutrition planning and help with hygiene, dressing and eating.
Quebec is setting aside an extra $280 million per year for such services, $80-million more than the party promised in the election.
The cash injection is expected to help provide an additional three million hours of services, with an extra 30,000 people able to partake. As of November, 32,000 people were on waiting lists for in-home care; almost half of them had been waiting for at least three months.
Some $70 million per year will go adding beds in seniors’ residences. The goal is to add 900 spots but a time frame is not in place yet.In the longer term, $564 million was earmarked between 2021 and 2024 for the creation of “spacious, air-conditioned seniors’ residences offering living environments tailored to changing individual needs.” Girard said the government will in its first mandate fulfill its promise to build 30 “Maisons des aînés,” each of which will welcome from 70 to 130 people, for a total of 2,600 new spaces.
The multiple measures were praised by the Fédération de l’âge d’or du Québec, which said it’s the first provincial budget to focus so much on seniors.
An association of government retirees said the CAQ is meeting many of its election pledges, but complained the government is starting to plan new residences for seniors yet did not set aside any extra money for dilapidated residences already in the network.
Liberal finance critic Carlos Leitão said the health spending plan is unrealistic.
“Spending growth of 5.4 per cent is far from being able to finance the new initiatives of the CAQ in addition to ensuring system costs,” he said.
Though pleased the overall health budget will grow by more than five per cent, the Quebec Nurses’ Federation said it was disappointed because the CAQ government
is not adequately dealing with understaffing.
“We don’t see the measures that are going to help the health care system — we’re in a crisis,” said Roberto Bomba, a member of the federation’s executive.
“Our nurses are suffering around the clock and there are no measures to reduce forced overtime.”
The union was hoping the government would expand a pilot project that involves reducing the number of patients nurses must attend to, he said.