When the COVID-19 pandemic has shrunk to the point that people can move more freely, the province of Nova Scotia will be taking a deep look at long-term care homes.
Premier Stephen McNeil says some of the newer facilities in the province have already incorporated designs of separate “pods”, making them feel more like homes than hospital wings, as older facilities do, and with fewer people.
“Each of those wings usually has it’s own kitchen, so inside of those facilities, you can isolate and much of that is done for the fact that, when our loved ones go into these facilities, they’re moving into their new home, and the atmosphere is built around that.”
He says large hospital-like facilities such as Northwood in Halifax, are considered outmoded.
“When this is all over, when we see across the country, we’ll do an assessment on large facilities like that, what is the right number, if we should have any common rooms, those kind of things are ongoing but the ones that are being built currently are on the new model, that data’s out there from Continuing Care.”
They will also be looking into other areas of these facilities, such as wages.
