Photo: LOLren As with hospital beds, the government and other proponents of the near freeze in new long-term care beds suggest that home care can take up the slack. Does this stand up? Well, let's take even a very aggressive version of this theory. Say that 25% of all people in LTC could be dealt with through home care. (Currently, that would mean evicting 19,250 LTC residents, which is hardly realistic!) As noted in the previous post , the demographics of the province are rapidly changing, with huge growth in the elderly population, now and into the years ahead. A 2011 study the Conference Board concludes "based on Statistics Canada‘s reported utilization rate by age and the Government of Ontario‘s population projection, it is estimated that by 2035—when boomers are 71 to 89 years old— 238,000 Ontarians will be in need of long-term care." That is 161,000 more than the 77,000 LTC beds existing now. If we somehow can subtract 25% from 238,000 we still
Notes from Leftwords -- Doug Allan