Personal care homes are an essential part of Manitoba’s healthcare system. Yet most of us don’t think about this aspect of our province’s social safety net until we or our loved ones need such care. 

COVID-19 shone a light on the state of long-term care in Manitoba, including significant cracks in our province’s system:

·       A shameful history of chronic inadequate underfunding for base operations in long-term care by past and present governments of Manitoba, worsened by today’s rising inflation rates. 

·       An aging infrastructure of personal care homes that requires immediate remediation, further deteriorated by each year of deferment.

·       An insufficient workforce for personal care homes, exacerbated by the rising complexity of care needs of residents.

·       Increased demands upon our sector to do more with less, complicated by new laborious auditing requirements for which there is no additional support. 

Personal care home residents are worthy of quality care delivered by skilled, compassionate, and consistent staff. And all Manitobans deserve the peace of mind that comes from knowing their right to an adequate standard of living will be upheld through a strong, responsive, and universally accessible system.

With the aging Baby Boomer population, projections indicate demand for personal care home beds will soon far exceed the supply. And, as any economist will tell you, when demand exceeds supply, the results are fewer options and higher consumer costs. 

The sustainability of Manitoba’s non-profit personal care homes is at great risk if the government of Manitoba does not take immediate action in four priority areas: 

1.    Redress the historic underfunding for base operational costs by past and present governments of Manitoba since 2008.

2.    Invest in the infrastructure for personal care homes through a separate and robust capital fund.

3.    Collaborate with MARCHE to ensure a sufficient workforce that can meet the rising complexity of care needs for personal care home residents. 

4.    Support and resource personal care home operators to ensure compliance with the national and provincial enhanced standards in service delivery.

We urge all political parties to address the above priority areas before non-profit long term care homes can no longer afford to operate their facilities.

Please join with us and sign this petition to improve the sustainability of non-profit long term care homes in Manitoba.

MARCHE = Manitoba Association of Residential & Long Term Care www.marchemb.ca