Provincial long-term care funding is delivered to Ontario’s nursing homes bundled in what the Ministry likes to call “envelopes.” These figures are allocated for each resident under care.
There is an envelope for nursing and personal care, another for program and support services, one for raw food costs, and a fourth for accommodations.
August 9 the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant LHIN sent out a memo outlining the increase in funding for each of these envelopes.
The per diem for nursing and personal care will rise by 1 per cent – or 86 cents – to $86.91. The per diem for program and support services will rise by just 8 cents to $8.43. Despite rapidly rising food costs, homes will only get 22 cents more per day to provide three meals, snacks and drinks. Homes receive $7.68 daily for raw food costs. The biggest winner will be the accommodations envelope, which will rise by $1.09 to $52.17.
Guess which of the four envelopes for-profit homes are allowed to draw profit from? If you guessed accommodations, you would be correct.
Given all the problems with care and support in Ontario’s nursing homes, this appears to be a very odd priority.
OPSEU Diablogue 