Miramichi ministers join forces in call for nursing home beds

A ministerial group in Miramichi is adding its voice to the outcry against nursing home shortages in New Brunswick.

The Miramichi Evangelical Ministerial Association says 37 per cent of hospital beds in the city are occupied by seniors with nowhere else to go and it's a situation, they say, needs to change

Veronica Jay's husband, Bob, has been in hospital since September, but should be in a nursing home.

"He's waiting for a bed at the one on Water Street or at the other, at the Mount," she said. "I spoke to a girl at the nursing home and she said it could be until September."

Jay says she worries her husband's quality of life is suffering as a result of the extended stay in hospital.

"I just feel at the nursing home he'll be more involved with other people. He'll be in a room that will feel like a home," she said.

Pastor Ray Arsenault hears stories like Veronica Jay's, too often. He and a group of local ministers are appealing to local MLAs to improve the situation.

"We hope that the government will hear us," he said. "We hope that there will be money put aside so that we can get a nursing home in this city. It is at a critical stage."

The Miramichi Evangelical Ministerial Association was prompted to act by a local physician Dr. Gerard Losier. He gathered close to 11,000 signatures on a petition in a city with a population of about 20,000.

City council is also behind the petition for change.

President of the New Brunswick Medical Society, Dr. Camille Haddad says the situation impacts everyone in the system.

"Some seniors in the hospital, they're there for a whole year without even going outside, which is not fair. It's not fair to our seniors," he said.

Haddad says it's also unfair to patients across New Brunswick whose surgeries are cancelled because of hospital bed shortages. He says the solutions are obvious.

"More nursing beds, improved home care as well because some patients can go home, but there's no one to look after them at home. So they end up in the hospital," he said. "Also, cut some of the red tape that we're seeing."

Last month, health minister Victor Boudreau recognized the bed shortage, but said it will take time to remedy the problem. That long-term solution may be found through a strategic program review, currently underway.