Sioux Lookout, Ont., was promised 76 long-term care beds by 2 premiers. It's still waiting for them
CBC
A community that's the health-care hub for more than 30 First Nations in northern Ontario has been waiting more than six years for long-term care beds promised by two premiers.
"The longer we wait for the government to make this progress for Sioux Lookout and for the north, the longer this crisis will grow," said Sioux Lookout Coun. Reece Van Breda.
"Standing still is moving backwards, right? The more we wait, the more we're going to have to play catch-up."
Sioux Lookout, a town with a permanent population of about 5,800, provides health care and social services to 33 surrounding First Nations, 28 of which are considered remote.
In spring 2018, the Liberal premier at the time, Kathleen Wynne, promised to build 76 additional long-term care (LTC) beds to help ease the strain on the 21-bed William A. George Extended Care Facility, which is operated by the Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Care Centre.
During his pre-election campaign, Doug Ford vowed to uphold that promise, but the community is still waiting for the Conservative premier's words to turn into action.
CBC News requested an interview with Minister of Long-Term Care Natalia Kusendova-Bashta about the project's status. A spokesperson said the minister could not do an interview, but provided an emailed statement.
"Minister Kusendova-Bashta recently met with the local leadership of Sioux Lookout at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference to reiterate our government's full commitment to this project," wrote spokesperson Daniel Strauss.
"The Ministry of Long-Term Care is continuing to advance the project through the early planning stages and will be providing updates as they become available."
In November 2023, CBC News reported on a letter-writing campaign in Sioux Lookout intended to pressure the province to build the beds faster. A spokesperson for the minister of long-term care at the time similarly said the project was "in the early planning stages of development," with no timeline available.
About half the beds at the Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre — the town's only hospital — are occupied by alternate level of care (ALC) patients, meaning those waiting for space in a long-term care facility.
"This has drastically limited our ability to admit acute patients out of our emergency department, thus having anywhere from three to 17 admitted patients waiting for a bed on the unit on any given day," said Dean Osmond, CEO of the Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre, in an email to CBC News.
"This also affects our ability to repatriate our patients back from tertiary centres. Acute patients are placed in overflow beds while regular beds are occupied with ALCs," Osmond said.
The hospital has 55 acute-care beds, plus 10 overflow beds throughout the medical and surgical units "in unconventional spaces."
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