'Such a tragic fiasco': Georgina residents 'shocked' Ontario government funding for-profit long-term care home

Owner of River Glen Haven LTC facility, ATK Care Group Inc., to build new 144-bed LTC facility in Sutton

Yorkregion.com
April 26, 2021
Amanda Persico

Recently, the province invested $933 million for more spaces and beds in long-term care facilities across the province through 80 different projects amounting to more than 11,000 beds.

Of those LTC beds, 7,510 are new spaces and 4,197 are upgrading existing spaces.

In York Region, that means an additional 1,530 new beds and more than 300 upgraded spaces.

For Georgina, that means River Glen Haven (RGH) was allotted funding for 25 new spaces and 119 upgraded spaces in a new 144-bed building at Dalton and Black River roads.

And that news comes as a shock to some local residents given the facility’s tragic history during the first COVID-19 wave in 2020.

“I was shocked. To think our government is proposing to fund this for-profit LTC home where there was such a tragic fiasco (last year),” said Mary Pape, a Sutton resident and former RGH volunteer.

“It was such a mess. To put up a fancy new building, how much better will it be this time?”

As of April 21, RGH was 11 days deep in a third COVID-19 outbreak -- one of six active LTC outbreaks in York Region -- resulting in five confirmed COVID-19 cases among health care workers.

The second RGH outbreak lasted 55 days in December 2020 and resulted in eight positive COVID-19 cases among health care workers.

The first outbreak in April 2020 lasted 66 days and resulted in 90 confirmed COVID-19 cases among facility residents -- 78 per cent -- including 36 deaths, and 37 confirmed cases among health care staff.

Southlake Regional Health Centre was mandated by the province to take over day-to-day operations at RGH in order to end the outbreak and management was handed back to ATK Care Group in August 2020.

Mary and her husband Hessel have a number of concerns with the new RGH building, a plan dating back to 2017.

Public tax dollars funding private LTC homes is a major concern, along with adequate staffing, Mary said.

“The issue is public money funding private, for-profit operations,” Hessel added.

RGH currently is working through the site plan process, to be approved by the Ministry of Long-Term Care, and site servicing applications through the Town of Georgina.

And the new LTC spaces is welcome news, allowing RGH to provide more services to residents, said RGH home administrator Darlene Horne.

"We are looking forward to being at home in our new home," she said. "Our goal is to ensure everyone feels at home at RGH."

RGH is working to adopt new and innovative therapies in the current building and in the new building, including hiring a nurse practitioner, adding more diverse foods to the menu, and improving the exterior with a new gazebo and landscaping.

According to the Ministry of Long-Term Care, about 63 per cent of new LTC spaces and 34 per cent of upgraded spaces were designated for not-for-profit facilities.

In December, the province also launched its LTC staffing plan, which includes hiring more than 27,000 personal support workers and registered nurses by 2024.

New and upgraded LTC spaces will not consist of ward-style rooms with three or four residents to a room, which made isolation and cohorting efforts difficult for many LTC facilities during the first COVID-19 wave.

The new spaces will be built to modern design standards to help prevent and contain transmission of infectious diseases.

A number of criteria were required for the allocated spaces, including financial stability of the facility; project readiness and completing construction by 2025.

River Glen Haven met many of those criteria, in particular in the elimination of ward rooms, said York-Simcoe MPP Caroline Mulroney.

“This project will be a new home in a totally new building built to modern standards,” she said. “Our loved ones in long-term care deserve a comfortable, modern place to live, near family and friends, with the support they need and when they need it.”