Victoria Manor }} Retrofit or rebuild it? ‘We also have to keep in mind that 45 years old is the accepted lifespan of a long-term care home.’
KIRK WINTER Municipal Affairs
The province says city council has to improve its 30-year old long-term care facility Victoria Manor by 2025.
Victoria Manor, the only publicly-owned long-term care home in Kawartha Lakes (managed by Sienna Senior Living), has a long history of caring for seniors and others with complex medical needs. By 2025 the Manor must be redeveloped to meet new provincial standards for accessibility and care, but council must decide what form that will take. Options include building a whole new facility or a retrofit of the building on Angeline Street North in Lindsay to meet provincial requirements. Chief Administrative Officer Ron Taylor and Director of Human Services Rod Sutherland provided an update to council in February which sparked considerable debate on the options, and who should pay for the changes needed. “The ‘new’ Victoria Manor was opened in 1990 and
currently has 166 beds. Kawartha Lakes is part of the Central East LHIN where the need for new beds is very high. In the central east catchment area alone 10,710 individuals are over the age of 75, close to 7 per cent of the population,” Taylor told council. He said the Eastern Ontario Wardens’ Caucus was looking at long-term care homes before the COVID pandemic began. EOWC was trying to come up with the best possible way for member municipalities to operate their 15 long-term care facilities. “EOWC is committed to the four hours a day of individual care endorsed by the province,” Taylor said, “but the question is how this will be funded. We also need to discover how we can recruit staff because in rural Ontario that is a real problem.”
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