The Financial Accountability Office (FAO) of Ontario this week released its analysis of the province’s plans to bring 15,000 new long term care (LTC) beds into operation in an effort to address the waiting list for long-term care. The new report, entitled Long Term Care Homes Program: A Review of the Plan to Create 15,000 New Long-Term Care Beds in Ontario, estimates the cost of the commitment and projects changes to waiting lists and waiting times.
The analysis suggests that 15,000 beds will cost the province $1.7-billion over the next five years. Once all beds are in operation, the ongoing annual cost will be approximately $970-million. The waiting list for an LTC bed, currently sitting at 34,900, is projected to peak at 40,200 next year. Once all beds come into service the wait list is projected to decrease to 36,900. “Even with the 15,000 new beds, an additional 55,000 new long-term care beds will be needed by 2033 to maintain the waitlist at approximately 36,900 individuals,” say the report’s authors.
Wait times for a bed will decrease to 140 days in 2023-2024 once all beds are in operation, down from 152 days in 2018-2019. The number is expected to peak in the meantime, however, reaching 179 days in 2020-2021.
In 2017-2018 there were approximately 6,300 hospital patients in Ontario waiting for an LTC bed placement. Those patients, they add, occupied over 340,000 hospital bed days – about five per cent of all hospital bed days in Ontario.