The critical shortage of nursing home beds in Manitoba means seniors are spending months in hospital waiting for a place in a personal care home, and the current policy means they pay up to $101 per day to live there.

A longstanding policy allows regional health authorities to charge a person deemed ready to move into a nursing home a daily living fee, even if no beds are available.

CBC News has learned that over the past three years, Manitobans have paid more than $15 million in living expenses while in hospital while awaiting transfer to a long-term care facility.

Margaret Drawson, 83, paid the Interlake-Eastern Health Authority more than $2,600 for her 87-year-old husband to live in a hospital in Pinawa, Manitoba.

Her husband, Gordon, 87, waited three months because there were no personal care home beds available near his home in Lac du Bonnet, about 90 kilometers northeast of Winnipeg.

“The problem is when you start paying at the hospital, you pay the same as the nursing home,” she said.

“And there’s nothing going on there… You’re also sharing a room with someone else all the time and there’s no activity.”

Figures provided by regional health authorities show there are currently more than 340 Manitobans waiting in hospital for a long-term care bed. Another 523 are waiting in the community.

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Married for 6 decades

Gordon Drawson worked for decades as a Winnipeg firefighter before retiring in 1995 as district chief. He has been married to Margaret for 62 years.

About three years ago, Gordon’s health began to deteriorate. Three months ago he could no longer walk, leaving Margaret with no choice but to take him to hospital on August 6.

Manitoba seniors pay $15 million to stay in hospital while waiting for a nursing home bed

Seniors waiting for a bed in a personal care home must pay up to $101 a day to live in hospitals. The total paid over three years is more than $15 million.

Thus began what Margaret called the “waiting game.” She made the 20-minute drive to Pinawa every day, not knowing when or if he would be moved to a nursing home.

“It’s very difficult, it’s very emotional,” she said.

Gordon’s life in the hospital was monotonous, she said.

He spent most of his time confined to his hospital bed. Margaret visited him, he ate in his room, he watched television.

He had no time to socialize with other patients and no one planned activities for him.

She saw her husband lose all interest in daily life.

“That’s the advantage of personal care homes. They have activities,” she said. “You sit in a dining room with people and eat your meals. You’re not isolated like in the hospital.”

$2,600 to live in the hospital

She later learned she would have to start paying per diem fees for Gordon to stay in the hospital.

The hospital charged Margaret $101 a day for nearly a month, costing her more than $2,600 before a bed was opened for Gordon on October 22. A few weeks before October 22, they offered her a bed in Selkirk, which Margaret said would have been an impossible daily commute for her, so she turned it down.

She is not the only one to pay this residential fee.

Figures provided to CBC News under freedom of information laws show this is an issue that affects rural communities the most. Of the $15 million paid by Manitobans from 2021-22 to 2023-24, more than $13 million came from residents living in hospitals outside of Winnipeg.

In the Prairie Mountain Health region, people were charged almost $3 million in 2023-24. The Interlake East Regional Health Authority, where Margaret lives, charged residents more than $800,000 to live in hospitals in 2023-24.

Dr. Michel Bruneau, a family physician in Lac du Bonnet, spent years watching his patients decline while he was stuck in a rural hospital, waiting for a bed to become available at a retirement home.

They deteriorate more quickly, the food is not as nutritious and they are isolated in their rooms, he said.

“It’s something I’ve always disagreed with. To me, it’s wrong on so many levels,” he said of residential fees.

“In the nursing home, when patients are charged for care, they actually benefit from many programs. They use a recreational person who just brings them more enrichment and fulfillment in their life in the nursing home. retirement. They don’t get that in the hospital.

A few years ago, you had to wait two years for one of your patients to be placed in a retirement home.

Across rural Manitoba, small hospitals have transformed into makeshift nursing homes, he said.

“If you take an average small rural hospital with 20 beds, there could easily be 50 percent of the people there waiting for long-term care,” he said.

Under the Canada Health Act, hospitals are allowed to charge for accommodation and living assistance services if a person is no longer receiving acute medical care and is waiting to be transferred to long-term care .

Laura Tamblyn Watts, CEO of seniors advocacy organization CanAge, said she sees this happening across Canada. It’s a scandalous practice that must stop, she said.

“It is appalling that particularly vulnerable older people are being financially punished because they are unable to receive the care they need and deserve,” she said. “No one stays in the hospital for fun.”

“Stored” in hospitals

Jane Meadus, an Ontario-based lawyer with the nonprofit Advocacy Center for the Elderly, said the original idea behind the charges was to encourage them to move to a retirement home instead of staying for free at the hospital.

But in practice, older people find themselves “locked” in a hospital without a program, she said.

“They’re not getting anything equivalent to what they’re getting in a long-term care home…and it’s unfair,” she said.

Provincial Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said what happened to the Drawson family is “a story we’ve heard too many times,” but he stopped short of committing to changing the policy of charging people elderly.

Asagwara said the government was focused on building more beds in personal care homes. At Lac du Bonnet, the first work should be started by the end of the year for a new retirement home that can accommodate 95 people, which is scheduled to open in 2027.

“I certainly appreciate people’s frustration with paying for beds that may not provide the same level of comprehensive care that they would receive in a personal care home,” Asagwara said.

“People who are in hospitals, I want to be very clear, are receiving care. People on the front lines are doing their best to make sure they are able to meet people’s needs.”

As for the Drawsons, Gordon moved into his new home last week. The 30-bed Lac du Bonnet nursing home is located a few blocks from Margaret’s apartment, so she no longer fears visiting in the winter.

There is a daily happy hour where residents are allowed to have a drink. Last weekend, Gordon went to the local legion draw and played Ace Chase.

That was never an option for him when he was stuck in a Pinawa hospital bed.

When Margaret goes to see him in the morning, he is bathed and his hair is brushed. He has a choice of meals each day and has his own room.

“I told some people, ‘I think I won the lottery,'” she said.