Murray Wood: Who's hot and who's not
Every Friday, Murray Wood takes a look at the week's news and decides who's hot and who's not. This week's list includes...
Over 90 residents at Regina’s Pioneer Village will need to be moved due to mould becoming an issue inside the facility.
The long-term care facility, which houses 328 people, has had infrastructure problems for several years and a report done 18 months ago indicated the presence of mould.
Another report completed last month indicated the mould had spread and Debbie Sinnett, executive director of continuing care for Regina for the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA), said 94 residents will need to be moved out of the home due to safety concerns.
The mould grew from 50 spaces to affect about 150 in total, with half of those being resident’s rooms. Sinnett said it was caused by roof issues, weakening brickwork and windows that aren’t as secured as they once were.
“For the most part, residents will be going to other care-homes in Regina, we have stopped admissions to Pioneer Village in the middle of April,” she said.
Vacancy created at Pioneer Village due to stopping admissions, as well as space at other facilities, means the SHA feels they can cover the 94 resident but a resident has the opportunity to move in with their family if they wish to do so.
Members of the SHA met with residents and staff at the facility earlier Thursday to talk about the current issue facing them and the options available.
“Each family member and resident will be met with individually and we’ll talk about their care needs and their options to ensure that everybody’s needs are met,” Sinnett said.
Sinnett said they aren’t aware of any residents becoming sick due to mould.
Moves have already begun and people have already left to other care homes. Sinnett said they closed a facility before and have a process to ensure things are done properly, which includes helping pay with relocation costs.
Sinnett indicated there have been discussions between the SHA and the Ministry of Health about the future of Pioneer Village. This would include continued renovations, the construction of a new facility or other community-care services.
“If we have, for example, a special care home that has indicated they might want to partner to increase the amount of beds they have, those are options that we would consider as part of future options,” Sinnett said.
While in the near future this isn’t anticipated to have an impact on the waiting list for people waiting for care.
“This is the time of the year, fortunately, where we tend to have less pressures, so at this point, we don’t have a significant waiting list in hospital but that’s something that we watch all the time,” she said.
There is no timeline on when the repairs will be done and people can be moved back into Pioneer Village.
