Province allocating additional $1.54M in funding to long-term-care homes in Newmarket

Additional money will help implement prevention, containment efforts amid pandemic

Yorkregion.com
Feb. 1, 2021
Aileen Zangouei

Long-term-care homes across Newmarket are receiving an additional $1,540,200 from the Ontario government to increase prevention and containment efforts amid the second wave of COVID-19.

On Jan. 27, Christine Elliott, MPP for Newmarket-Aurora, announced that the new funding will help to reduce the risk of the virus entering long-term-care homes in the community.

"This funding will further strengthen the prevention and containment efforts in our long-term-care homes to protect Newmarket's most vulnerable residents and those who care fore them," said Elliott.

Long-term-care homes in Newmarket that will be receiving the additional funding during the second wave are as follows:

• Eagle Terrace will receive $72,000 -- since the start of the pandemic began, they have received a total of $644,000 toward prevention and containment support;

• Mackenzie Place will receive $84,000, bringing the total prevention and containment support since the start of the pandemic to $737,600;

• Southlake Residential Care Village, which is receiving an additional $300,800, bringing the total prevention and containment support since the start of the pandemic to $1,278,600; and

• York Region Newmarket Health Centre, which is receiving an additional $1,083,400, bringing the total prevention and containment support since the start of the pandemic to $1,476,800.

The additional funding will go toward helping these long-term-care homes implement further prevention and containment systems, and will cover the eligible expenses that are related to:

• An immediate 24-7 health checkpoint to confirm staff and essential caregivers entering the building and properly screening for COVID-19 symptoms and potential exposure, and to continue screening residents on an ongoing basis to support early detection and containment of any new infections;

• More prevention and containment activities, such as hiring new staff to conduct the additional workload for essential services and to take over for employees who are sick or self-isolating;

• Cleaning, equipment, and operating supplies; and

• Putting infection control measures in place based on clinical evidence, advice from a physician or other regulated health practitioners with expertise in infection control.

“Our government will spare no expense to keep our seniors safe, and we continue to urge everyone to continue staying home to stop the spread and save lives," Elliott said.

The minister of long-term care, Dr. Merrilee Fullerton, said that "from the start of the pandemic, we have taken quick and decisive action to make sure that homes have access to the resources they need to care for our loved ones."

Since the beginning of COVID-19, the Ontario government has invested $1.3 billion to ensure that long-term-care homes have the resources needed to battle the virus.

The province continues to work alongside local public health units, hospital partners, the local health integration networks and all health sector partners to help stabilize the situation and return the home to normal operations in the case where an outbreak is declared in a home.

To address staffing challenges that have been long-standing, the government has launched one of the largest recruitment and training drives in Ontario's history, to deliver on its commitment to provide an average of four hours of daily direct care for residents.

To implement its staffing plan, Ontario is increasing annual investments, amounting to $1.9 billion in contributions yearly by 2024 to 2025, to help create more than 27,000 new positions for personal support workers.