A new wing at a Moncton nursing home is sitting empty because there aren’t enough nursing staff to fill it.
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Villa du Repos has been ready to accept new clients since January, but can’t open because they just cant find enough nurses to care for patients.
“We are running now at 126 beds, we’re 100 per cent occupied, every nursing home in the province is running short, because there’s no staff,” said Comfort Life Network director Ronald Leblanc.
“We’re compounded by the fact that we have 60 additional beds to open, so now we have to staff 100 per cent of 60 beds.”
According to the head of the New Brunswick Council of Nursing Home Unions, there are some 500 senior citizens waiting to get into a nursing home and many of them occupy hospital beds.
Jane Buchanan’s mother Mary is one of them and has been trying to get into a nursing home since last year, after suffering seizures that left her hospitalized and unable to take care of herself.
Back in October, she was medically assessed and cleared to integrate her new home.
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“Thirty days after they say she’s been medically assessed, they start charging a per diem rate for her waiting in a bed after she’s medically released, so she pays about $1,200 a month to be in a room with three strangers,” Buchanan said.
Dr. John Li said he sees first hand what effect the shortage of licensed nurses in homes can have on patient care.
“People are being put in the hallway or TV room with no bathroom facility close by and having people walk by and looking at that them as if it’s them causing the trouble,” Li said.
Leblanc said they are hoping to have staff trained and ready and some beds open by mid-May.