A senior citizen in La Ronge says the community badly needs more long-term care beds.
Barbara Blyth is 84 years old.
Blyth suffers from an incurable form of bone cancer and recently broke her foot in two places.
She says it was shortly after that the furnace went out in her home.
Blyth was then put into a women’s shelter by her home care nurse, simply because there was no room for her in acute care or long-term care.
She says the ladies at the women’s shelter were incredibly nice to her and she got through the night just fine.
Her furnace has since been repaired and she is back home now.
But she says that doesn’t fix the long-term problem that La Ronge is feeling:
“Well, they’ve got the 17 beds, which is an underestimate to begin with. We need Level 2/3 care for people which is what I get from home care. ”
Blyth feels La Ronge isn’t on the radar of the current government and she wonders why that is.
The topic was brought up in the provincial legislature.
NDP Leader Cam Broten says seniors in the province deserve better.
Health Minister Dustin Duncan says he knows there are problems with the system.
However, Duncan says the government is moving forward to address the needs of 12 long-term care facilities.
As for the area of La Ronge, he says the province has given increased funding to the local health region.
Duncan also thinks the option of personal care homes needs to be looked at.