Keswick's Cedarvale Lodge gets 12 new beds: MPP Caroline Mulroney

New seniors beds helps reduce hallway medicine, government pledges

Yorkregion.com
October 15, 2018
Lisa Queen

Keswick’s Cedarvale Lodge for seniors is getting 12 new beds under the provincial government’s pledge to end hallway medicine, York-Simcoe MPP Caroline Mulroney announced Oct. 13.

Providing more long-term spaces reduces the strain on the health care system, because seniors needing care often take up hospital beds until they can be placed in a long-term care home.

Premier Doug Ford announced this month the government will move forward with eventually creating more than 15,000 new long-term care beds.

Cedarvale Lodge will get funding for 12 new beds under the first wave of funding, Mulroney announced.

In advance of the flu season, the government will immediately create 640 new beds and extend funding for spaces already operating in hospitals and community facilities across Ontario, Mulroney said.

“One patient treated in a hallway is one patient too many. It’s unacceptable that people are waiting hours before seeing a doctor or are forced to lie on stretchers in hospital hallways when they do finally get care,” she said in a statement.

“Patients are frustrated, families are frustrated, and doctors and nurses are frustrated. The people of York-Simcoe deserve access to efficient, quality health care, and our government is taking an immediate first step in delivering on that promise.”

Mulroney, who had visited Cedarvale Lodge during the election campaign, returned to the home Oct. 13 to talk to residents and staff about how boosting long-term care beds will provide better care for people when they need it.

“During the campaign, I heard a lot from people about the wait times in hospitals, and the capacity concerns that facilities were facing due to bed shortages. It’s something that affects people of all ages across the province, and it’s why our government promised that we would address it,” she said.

“It’s clear to me that this is going to have an immediate and positive effect on the healthcare system, and we’re going to continue to build on this forward momentum."