By Cecilia Nasmith

Streamway Villa at 19 James St. W., Cobourg, is now more than a long-term-care facility – it is now the site of the future build of a 192-bed facility that will include the upgraded 59 beds of the present facility as well as 133 new ones.

Northumberland-Peterborough South MPP David Piccini was pleased to announce that this is in addition to increased and upgraded capacity at the new Golden Plough Lodge rebuild and the Southbridge Care facility in Port Hope.

“It's among the largest long-term-care investment in spaces in our region's history,” Piccini stated.

Streamway was built in 1977, Omni Health Care Chief Executive Officer Patrick McCarthy said.

“It has a proud history in this community, and we want to continue with that. We look forward to our residents being in quarters that are more spacious and more geared to modern needs,” McCarthy added.

“Northumberland has a growing senior population and a lengthy wait list for long-term-care accommodation, and that demand is expected to increase over the coming years,” Warden Bob Crate observed.

Crate pointed out that enough long-term-care space also benefits all ages, as it eases the ALC burden on our health-care system – the term referring to alternative level of care patients in a hospital who no longer need acute care but have no place to be discharged to that does offer the continuing care that they still require, with the result that a hospital bed is tied up that might be needed.

“Projects like the Golden Plough Lodge redevelopment provide care for people where they need it and when they need it in their own communities where they can remain close to friends and family and in familiar settings,” Crate said.

“Today Cobourg is not only known as the Ontario Feel Good Town, but a town that truly supports and cherishes our senior population,” Cobourg Mayor John Henderson stated.

“I commend the Province of Ontario for helping us to keep our seniors cared for, loved and accommodated within their beloved community. I couldn't be more proud,” he said, adding that this build and the Golden Plough Lodge project have a combined construction value of perhaps $120-million or more.

Streamway Chief Executive Officer Kylie Szczebonski described the challenges the COVID-19 pandemic had posed to her facility's residents and staff, “but we have never wavered in our commitment to provide the highest standard of care for our residents.”

Szczebonski looks forward to a redesign that will incorporate up-to-date innovations and technologies. In answer to questions from a half-dozen Streamway residents in attendance, McCarthy offered some details.

The project is currently in the design stage, he said. They should be able to break ground between spring and fall next year, and construction should take another 18 months. There will be a move away from three-bed and four-bed rooms to an entirely private and semi-private format, and he estimated that the square footage per resident will be more than double what it is now.

The population will be grouped in 32-bed “home areas,” McCarthy said, small sub-communities that should provide a quieter and more intimate ambience.

A preliminary design will be prepared, he added, and residents and their families will have the opportunity for input.

“It's another milestone in our government's commitment to modernizing long-term care in our community and across the province of Ontario,” Northumberland-Peterborough South MPP David Piccini said at the announcement - “modern, safe spaces where our loved ones receive the quantity and quality of care they deserve.”

It's historic, Piccini said, because this is an area long neglected by past governments of every stripe.

“Today, in March 2021, the Province of Ontario is embarked on 20,267 new beds and 15,918 upgraded beds. It's a staggering investment,” he declared.

“Our needs are changing. People are living longer. People's needs are growing with an increasing acuity of care and complexity of care.”

Piccini said the community owes it to the people who built the country to ensure “the dignity of high-quality care with the right number of hours they need.”

The province has committed to meeting a four-hour daily minimum of care per person with the hiring of more than 27,000 health-care professionals and accelerated training at Loyalist, Fleming and Durham colleges.

Tackling the challenges that have accumulated in long-term care will take all hands on deck regardless of party, Piccini said.

“For too long, governments of all stripes sat back and didn't make the right investments for seniors, and this is long overdue.

“This is your tax dollars at work for you, for your loved ones and for your community.”