No word yet on special needs unit at Rainycrest

“This is not a pleasant position to be in,” Rainycrest administrator Kevin Queen said last week, conceding doubt grows as he still awaits word on a proposal for a 32-bed special needs unit there.
“We haven’t had an interview set up,” he added, noting Rainycrest first pitched the proposal to the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care back in July.
“It’s very important for us to get those beds, especially to our staff–that’s a critical point,” stressed Coun. Struchan Gilson, who sits on the Rainycrest board.
“And you may not know, there used to be a separate unit for [special needs] patients but then there was a push to consolidate everything,” he noted.
“But with admitted patients tending to be older and demanding more care these days, we need it back more than ever,” Coun. Gilson argued.
At the same time, Coun. Gilson said rumours are flying Birchwood Terrace, a 96-bed private facility in Kenora, may get all 64 beds the province has allocated for the Kenora/Rainy River districts.
“What bothers me is with a private home, they’re getting the funding for the beds plus trying to turn a profit on top of that,” he remarked, adding that competing for beds against a home that will charge more for its care is “obscene.”
But Birchwood Terrace administrator Denise Miault said she also has yet to hear from the ministry. “There’s been no word–not a breath,” she said.
For that matter, Queen said the two other homes for the aged he manages–Northwood Lodge in Red Lake and Pinecrest in Kenora–have yet to hear anything on their requests for 10 and 12 new beds respectively.
With 21 beds re-allocated to the new Rainy River hospital, reducing its total from 168 to 147, Rainycrest last month had to reduce staff by 12.5 percent.
That loss of staff necessitated new schedules in all departments.
And more staff cuts will come if the 32 beds for the special needs unit aren’t approved.
“It’s not a moralizing move to have to restructure and re-staff. And there’s 12 more beds going to Emo sometime [in 2001], and that will mean more reductions,” Queen lamented.
Queen said he had an inkling of what might be holding the approval back but thought it prudent to remain tight-lipped.
“You really can’t say too much, one way or the other, when you’re in the middle of this process,” he remarked.
The special needs unit at Rainycrest would consist of 32 beds in a special wing reserved especially for cognitively-impaired residents.
It likely would mean a separate lounge and dining facility, as well as a controlled access and egress system.