MONCTON, NB — Seniors waiting for spots in nursing homes are tying up nearly a third of hospital beds in New Brunswick.
Horizon Health Network says 28% of hospital beds are held by seniors who don’t require medical treatment but have no where else to go.
It ended up being a fatal issue for David Melanson’s father, Herman.
“He had a fragile heart, he was 88 years old, and he didn’t sleep all night,” said Melanson, whose father spent 25 hours on a stretcher in a Moncton Hospital hallway.
There weren’t enough beds at the time. Melanson’s father passed away days later.
That was eight years ago and Melanson says, the situation has remained unchanged.
“I hate when I still go into a hospital today and I see seniors on a stretcher, I always ask ‘how long have they been on that stretcher for?'” he said.
In March, 762 seniors were waiting for a nursing home bed in the province. 524 of those are in acute-care hospital beds.
“So they sit in our beds, lie in our beds, and they wait. It’s not good for them, it’s really bad for them to be truthful,” said Linda Forestell, a Horizon Health Network board member.
Each of these beds cost Horizon about $1,000 per day, according to the Coalition for Seniors and Nursing Home Residents’ Rights.
Which means in March, it cost them about $524,000 a day to hospitalize seniors who are waiting for a nursing home spot.
“Acute-care beds are the most expensive beds in the hospital. They really are, nursing home beds are the least expensive but if you don’t have a supply of them, there’s not much you can do,” Forestell said.
Forestell said the solution lies in better home-care services and more nursing homes.
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