OLTCA pleased with provincial budget's long-term care allotment
Member homes credited with raising awareness of staffing issues
Friday March 28, 2008 -- Jason Thompson
Janet Lambert believes the government has responded to the long-term care sector's staffing concerns in the recent budget and credits an awareness campaign driven by Ontario Long-Term Care Association (OLTCA) members with getting the province's attention.

In their budget released March 25, the Ontario government committed more than $500 million to hire 9,000 nurses across the province including 2,000 in long-term care. They have also budgeted about $107 
million over three years to hire 2,500 personal support workers (PSWs) as well as $278 million over the same time period towards programming needs in the sector.

"We think the government heard our 50,000 residents and family members in their campaign to talk about needing more than a band-aid, so we're please the government listened to us," says Lambert, the OLTCA's executive director.

"We're looking forward to working with the government and making sure we get some staffing and care to the bedside as soon as we can."

OLTCA board chair David Cutler also applauded the provincial budget's investment in staffing for long-term care.

"Once we understand the details of the announcement, we will quickly be able to move to recruit the necessary staff to improve the services to our residents," he says.

Lambert says the association will continue to work with government officials to determine how much extra care this will afford each resident.

"From what we understand, we think over the next three to four years, we'll get to the 20 extra minutes of care per resident per day in a typical home that we were asking for," Lambert says.

"It didn't happen all at once but it looks like it can happen."

The budget also includes a one-year $90-million extension of the Nursing Graduate Guarantee. Announced in 2007, the guarantee ensures 
full-time work opportunities for all Ontario nursing graduates that year.

Lambert is pleased to see the guarantee extended for another year.

"Many of our members have taken advantage of that and it's really helped them out in terms of getting care into our homes."

How does the provincial budget impact your home? To share your thoughts, phone (800) 294-0051, ext. 25 or e-mail jason(at)axiomnews.ca.

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