Lac du Bonnet residents paying for hospital stays as years-long wait for new care home continues

A sign marking the future site of a new care home first promised to people in Lac du Bonnet 11 years ago is now a painful reminder of a project once again put on hold. 

"How long do we have to wait?" said Marline Wruck, an 81-year-old Lac du Bonnet resident. "I don't want to see that sign anymore … unless it's going to happen."

Residents in the eastern Manitoba community and the surrounding area say they're frustrated the long-awaited 95-bed complex hasn't been built yet, since there are already people waiting in hospital for a bed to open up.

When exactly the project will start remains unclear. It was delayed this month as part of a broader review of provincial spending under the recently elected NDP government.

Wruck and her husband, Gus, 83, were reminded of just how badly the care home is needed when he recently ended up in nearby Pinawa Hospital after a fall.

"The man next to him had been there, I think, five or six months awaiting a personal care home," Marline Wruck said.

Lac du Bonnet Mayor Ken Lodge said people in need of a care home bed, and their families, are the ones paying the price for the delay.

"We have approximately 65 people that are panelled [for placement in a personal care home] right now waiting to get into a personal care home bed," Lodge said.

A spokesperson for the Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority, which includes Lac du Bonnet, said if someone who has been panelled is in hospital and has no other option for care, they will remain in hospital. 

But once the panel process is completed, people are charged for the care they're provided, whether they're in hospital or a care home bed.

That doesn't sit well with Loren Schinkel, reeve of the Rural Municipality of Lac du Bonnet, given the delays the project has faced over the years.

"It's so disrespectful," he said. There's a "frustration that's felt here by us as leaders of the community on behalf of our seniors that are languishing in hospital beds that once panelled, they have to pay for. They're paying to stay in hospitals."

The health region wouldn't confirm the number of people waiting in hospital for a care home placement. It said the number of people who require placement fluctuates significantly.

Schinkel said the NDP, elected in October, ran on a platform to fix health care, and he feels the care home would benefit the system.