Rainycrest gets approval for interim beds

Administrator Kevin Queen received word late last week from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care that Rainycrest Home for the Aged here would be reallocating 21 beds to interim status.
“It’s a break. It takes a lot of the pressure off the loss,” he said, referring to the loss of 21 beds Rainy River hospital and the future loss of 12 to Emo hospital sometime in 2001.
But although Queen referred to the approval as “exceptionally good news,” he was quick to note many of the details still have to be sorted out.
“I do know that the beds will be only open to hospital transfers,” he said. “I don’t know what the exact conditions will be, when it will happen, what funding is available–details will be available as we get them.”
One thing Queen was certain of was some an increase in staffing although on what scale–whether more hours for existing staff or more positions–he could not yet say.
Also, the benefit of the interim beds could be either short- or long-term. “If the demand for these beds stays high, who knows?” he remarked.
In related news, as first reported in the Times on May 17, it’s been confirmed Central Care, the corporation that owns Central Park Lodge-Birchwood Terrace in Kenora, has received all 64 long-term care beds that had been allocated to the Kenora-Rainy River districts
Rainycrest, Northwood Lodge (Red Lake), and Pinecrest Home for the Aged (Kenora) also had been vying for a portion of those beds.
But Central Care will not be putting the beds into its home in Kenora, said Queen, who spoke with senior administrator Val Goffe on the matter.
Rather, all 64 will be allocated to Dryden, where Central Care does not currently have a home. Queen could only speculate it would either enter a partnership with an existing one or build a new facility.
But Goffe clarified the situation. “When we made our proposal, we made it for Northwestern Ontario, not Kenora specifically. When the beds were awarded on the merit of our proposal, we asked for permission to have the beds go to Dryden,” she said.
Goffe noted Central Care now is looking at the feasibility of building a new facility in Dryden.
Rainycrest, which was hoping for 32 of the 64 beds, was planning to use them in a special needs unit that would service cognitively-impaired residents.