Haliburton Highlands Health Services (HHHS) has confirmed plans to move all Highlands’ long-term care beds to Minden in the next five years.
CEO Veronica Nelson said an application to expand from 62 beds at Minden’s Hyland Crest to a 160-bed facility will be submitted to the Ministry of Long-Term Care (LTC) by the end of March. If approved, HHHS will close the 30-bed Highland Wood home in Haliburton.
The project would be a significant expansion of the rebranded Minden Health Hub site, with a new LTC wing to be built on the eastern portion of the property. Nelson said it would connect to the existing Hyland Crest.
It’s estimated the project will cost at least $49 million, with Nelson saying the general rule is $500,000 for each new LTC bed.
“Having two small homes is not sustainable,” Nelson said. “We’re looking at consolidation and expansion. What that looks like is yet to be fully determined… it makes sense to expand Minden… adding 98 beds there is a lot less expensive than building 130 beds in Haliburton.
“This is just a plan at this point – nothing is set in stone. The ministry obviously has a say in it, but what we’re looking at is putting everything together at one site,” Nelson added.
She said the Minden hub sits on approximately 9.5 acres, about two acres more than Haliburton, so would be a better fit for the build.
Nelson says build could take three to five years
HHHS communications lead, Lauren Ernst, said if LTC beds are rerouted to Minden, the current Highland Wood site would be retrofitted as an extension to the Haliburton hospital. She said it would be used to build the capacity of acute care and inpatient services.
Ernst said demand for LTC beds is high, with the wait for Highland Wood over 300 days, and for Hyland Crest over 700 days and for Extendicare over 470 days.
“We know our County needs more long-term care beds, and that is our goal,” Ernst added.
Nelson said the expansion would have no impact on other services at the hub, including the urgent care clinic, operated by the Kawartha North Family Health Team, and services such as physiotherapy, bone densitometry, GAIN programming for seniors, and outpatient x-ray.
“We’re actually continuing to expand those services,” Nelson said, announcing a new gynecology clinic will be opening in April. “It will be for physician referrals, or self-referral if people don’t have a family doctor.”
Bonnie Roe, lead of Aging Together as Community Haliburton Highlands (ATAC), said the news of consolidating and expanding in Minden is bittersweet.
“Like any change, one can choose to see this plan as an opportunity or not. Could this new build be the creative alternative many seek? Does it make sense to consolidate all LTC beds in one location to provide optimum care? From a financial and staffing perspective this has huge advantages,” Roe said.
“An obvious negative will be for the residents that will have to move in three-to-five years from their home, which will be very traumatic.”
Master plans underway
A community forum on the future of LTC in the County will be held at the Minden facility March 5, from 6 to 8 p.m. It’s the second of a three-part engagement series to share plans on HHHS’ master planning process.
A Feb. 19 event provided updates on HHHS initiatives, recent achievements, and future projects. A third session on the future of acute care is March 26.
Nelson said the idea is to keep the public up to speed with plans for HHHS’ two facilities and allow for input into priorities.
“We’re concurrently doing two master plans – one for the hospital, and one for LTC.”
Master plans are mandated by the Ministry of Health, with HHHS doing both the near term (five to 10 years) and far out (15, 20, 30 years). They must have plans to access capital funding.
“We haven’t had many changes [to acute care] and we need to make some to give us the capacity we need for the next 10 years,” Nelson said, with the population in HHHS’ catchment area expected to increase by 22 per cent over the next 20 years. “This is the way we step back and think about what services and programs are needed in the County now and in the long-term. It’s a long process, but an important one.”
There’s no timeline for submission on the general hospital plan, but Nelson said the aim is to have the LTC file done by end of the fiscal year, March 31.
It typically takes between 12 and 18 months for ministry approval. “Then it would take about two years to build something the size we’re looking at. So, it could take – with the waiting – three to five years for this project,” she said.
