Beds at La Verendrye hospital already are being freed up after an announcement Tuesday by the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care approving 10 temporary beds for Rainycrest Home for the Aged here.
“It’s definitely good news for the hospital,” said Wayne Woods, CEO of Riverside Health Care Facilities, Inc.
“We’re taking care of long-term care patients that couldn’t get into Rainycrest for at least the past year,” he added.
“A hospital is supposed to provide emergency and acute care,” he stressed. “If we keep having to give our beds to long-term care patients, we run the risk of denying them to others.”^Woods noted La Verendrye hospital most recently housed 20 long-term care patients, but already has started to move some to Rainycrest. About three a week will be relocated.
Woods said the funding for the beds is only temporary, but added Riverside and Rainycrest both are working with the ministry to see if that can be extended.
This funding raises the home’s bed capacity from 135 to 145, and helps alleviate the acute care bed usage at Riverside Health Care Facilities, Inc., Rainycrest administrator Jill Colquhoun said in a press release issued Tuesday.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
