HOSPICE MUSKOKA'S PETITION APPEALS TO OPEN BEDS

Hospice Muskoka is appealing to the public to let candidates in the upcoming provincial election know how important the needs are for government funded beds at Andy's House. By 2 p.m. on a Friday afternoon, Hospice Muskoka had already turned six people away that day at Andy's House — South Muskoka's only palliative care home located in Port Carling. In addition, she says they get about five calls a week from overburdened caregivers in need of respite and caregiver relief.

"It's devastating," said executive director Donna Kearney of having to decline four patients currently in hospital and two from within the community — particularly when they have five empty beds.

Andy's House, constructed with the potential to host 10 residents, opened October 2020 with funding for three beds. Those three beds are kept full. Another room is reserved as a guest room for family members and another reserved for pediatric palliative care. Five beds, half the occupancy rate, remain empty.

This isn't for lack of trying on behalf of Kearney and the Hospice Muskoka board. She said, in January, a second proposal to the Ministry of Health requested funding for five respite beds at Hospice Muskoka. It was a proposal backed with data and endorsements from the hospital, local government and the Muskoka and Area Ontario Health team. The request for funding was declined.

"I had heard from so many politicians through the fourth quarter of our fiscal year that this was a done deal — not to worry about it — and I had believed them," said Kearney. "I decided that this time, they're not going to get off the hook so easy."

Her first course of action when she received the disappointing news was an appeal to District of Muskoka Chair John Klinck, who told her district council would formulate an aggressive strategy for funding after the election. A delegation will be held at the District of Muskoka health services committee meeting on May 19.

Kearney's next step was to launch a Hospice Muskoka matters petition through change.org, which sends an email to candidates running in the upcoming election every time someone signs the petition.

"We're going to move forward and whoever forms government is going to have a nice big fat petition and some letter writing campaigns over the next five weeks," said Kearney. "And we need to get people talking about it nonstop. It needs to be an issue."

With Muskoka's aging population, Kearney calls it a "canary in the coal mine."

"We need to be ahead of it because we need be ahead of it because we need to set the way for the rest of the province," she said.

The number of patients in hospital needing alternative levels of care, whether that be long-term care, hospice or rehab, has long been an issue. In late January, when MuskokaRegion.com spoke with active president and chief executive officer of Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare there were 46 patients requiring alternate levels of care.

"It's not the patients' fault. They're not to blame," said Vickie Kaminski, during the Jan. 25 interview. "They're caught in the system as well. They would rather be in a different place."

Kearney says the ask of the province to provide funding for the five additional beds is not a big ask. At $105,000 per bed, the ask is just more than $500,000 per annum.

"If those people were in the hospital that's at least three times more expensive — that's $1.5 million," she said. "So, we're saving the system $1 million for five beds. It makes no financial sense not to fund us."

The petition can be found at change.org/p/ hospice-muskoka-matters.