This is my first post as a new blogger. Please be patient while I navigate this process.
My wife is a Manager of Health Services at a hospital not far from our home. We live in a city in Manitoba and the hospital is in a smaller community about 20 minutes from where we live. We were having a conversation recently and were discussing how many seniors were using beds in the hospital she manages and were waiting for a placement to a Care Home. We discovered about a third of the beds in the hospital were being used for this purpose. These are seniors that are no longer well enough to completely take care of themselves, but a hospital environment is not appropriate for them.
I have seen several hospitals where a significant portion of the beds are being used for seniors in this position, rather than being placed in a Care Home. I believe this is an issue in the rural hospitals and city hospitals alike.
This leads me to the assumption that the system is not functioning nearly as well as it should be. In my opinion, the largest contributor to this issue is the provincial government followed by the federal government. This issue is not nearly high enough on the priority list of all levels of government. Too much priority has been placed on other things and too many taxpayer dollars have gone to other places when they should be used to improve this issue to the point where there is no longer any seniors waiting in hospitals for a Care Home space to open up for them.
On a provincial level, the current premiere, Wab Kinew, uses far too much taxpayer money to perform landfill searches that may not produce any results and dedicating funds to many “special interest” groups rather than using those funds to build and staff more Care Homes to take care of the seniors who have paid taxes their entire life. The latter option would benefit more Manitobans rather than select groups categorized by gender, race, or some new letter added to the ever changing LGBTQ. Oh and then there is the never ending settlements paid to residential school “survivors.” Society in general has become quite entitled and selfish. This has led to many seniors being left with no family support and a government spending their lifetime of paying taxes on other so called “priorities” that only benefit select groups or individuals.
Something needs to change. The population of seniors is growing and will continue to grow. These individuals are entitled to live their golden years in a comfortable environment with the best care and support we can provide.