Photo Credit: schlegelvillages.com

ONTARIO Ontario Celebrates Opening of New Building at Long-Term Care Home in Kitchener

Tuesday, 11 April 2023 06:33.PM

- The Village of Winston Park expansion brings 224 much-needed beds to the province -

The construction of a new building at The Village of Winston Park, a long-term care home in Waterloo Region, is complete and the home is now welcoming residents. This is part of the Ontario government’s $6.4 billion commitment to build more than 58,000 new and upgraded long-term care beds across the province by 2028.

The Village of Winston Park will now provide a total of 224 safe, modern, long-term care beds in Kitchener. The third and final phase of construction is expected to be completed in spring 2024 and will add 64 additional new beds after renovating the original building. The home is licensed to and operated by Schlegel Villages Inc.

“Congratulations to The Village of Winston Park on reaching this important milestone. Our government is fixing long-term care and a key part of that plan is building modern, safe, and comfortable homes for our seniors,” said Paul Calandra, Minister of Long-Term Care. “This redeveloped home is a significant milestone for the city of Kitchener and Waterloo Region – today’s opening means that 224 residents will have a new place to call home, near their family and friends.”

The home will feature design improvements for residents, including private and basic rooms, lounges, dining and activity areas – larger resident common areas and air conditioning throughout the home. Once completed, the 288-bed Village of Winston Park will be part of a campus of care, which helps integrate the long-term care home into the broader health care system and ensures residents conveniently connect to the care they need.

In addition to projects like The Village of Winston Park, Ontario is supporting another 12 projects in Waterloo Region, including the development of long-term care homes in Cambridge, Wilmot, Woolwich and Kitchener. Together, these 13 projects will provide 1,467 new and 1,010 upgraded long-term care beds, for a total of 2,477 beds built to modern design standards.

The government is fixing long-term care to ensure Ontario’s seniors get the quality of care and quality of life they need and deserve both now and in the future. The plan is built on four pillars: staffing and care; quality and enforcement; building modern, safe and comfortable homes; and connecting seniors with faster, more convenient access to the services they need.

Quick Facts

• The Ontario government is on track to build 30,000 much-needed new long-term care beds in the province by 2028, and is redeveloping older beds to modern design standards. Through a $6.4 billion investment, Ontario has 31,705 new and 28,648 upgraded beds in the planning, construction and opening stages of the development process. This will help increase overall bed capacity, address long-term care waitlists and hallway health care, and provide our seniors the care they deserve.
• Building more modern, safe and comfortable homes for our seniors is part of the Government of Ontario’s Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021.
• The province is taking innovative steps to get long-term care homes built, including modernizing its funding model, selling unused lands with the requirement that long-term care homes be built on portions of the properties, and leveraging hospital-owned land to build urgently needed homes in large urban areas.
• The Ontario government is providing a supplemental increase to the construction funding subsidy to stimulate the start of construction by August 31, 2023 for more long-term care homes across the province. Not-for-profit homes have the option to receive a portion of the funding as an up-front construction grant payable at the start of construction. More information about funding for long-term care home development is available here.
• As of November 2022, more than 39,000 people were on the waitlist to access a long-term care bed in Ontario. The median wait time is 126 days for applicants to be placed in long-term care.

SOUCE: Ontario Ministry of Long-Term Care

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