By Ruby Pratka
Local Journalism Initiative
The long-planned $15-million expansion of the CHSLD de Bedford will not take place, the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS announced late last week.
Patient advocates had been pushing for an expansion since at least 2015, according to the non-profit Lévesque-Craighead Foundation, which raises money to support the CHSLD and other local public health facilities in and around Bedford. Plans to expand the facility were first announced in 2019 but ran into delays due to the pandemic. In May 2022, Brome-Missisquoi MNA Isabelle Charest and minister for seniors’ affairs Marguerite Blais announced details of an expansion plan which would allow the residence to accommodate up to 49 residents in private rooms and create a protected unit with eight places for people with cognitive disabilities who are susceptible to wandering, as the BCN reported at the time.
Last week, the CIUSSS announced the project was shelved due to a lack of demand. Residents will remain in double rooms.
Rosane Rivard, director of CHSLD services for the CIUSSS, said the demand for CHSLD places has dropped in recent years due to the increasing popularity of home care. “Current data shows that the CHSLD de Bedford, with its 42 beds, responds to demand,” she said. “Among the 42 beds, 39 are occupied, and six of those are users in transition, meaning that the CHSLD de Bedford wasn’t their first choice.”
Certain smaller renovations will go ahead over the summer, and starting in the fall, the CIUSSS plans to put in place a “living space committee” (comité milieu de vie) with a range of community stakeholders. The cost and the extent of those renovations are still to be determined.
Christiane Granger, president of the Lévesque-Craighead Foundation, said the foundation was “very surprised at this 360-degree turn” by the CIUSSS.
Both Granger and Pierrette Messier-Peet, president of the Bedford Pole Health Committee (BPHC), said the cancellation shook their trust in the CIUSSS. “We’re very disappointed and demobilized – it puts our partnership in question,” Granger said.
“We’re all in shock,” Messier-Peet said. “They told us they would close 12 beds over the summer and those beds would reopen in the fall, but how do we know they’re not going to do another 360?”
Messier-Peet said that more than 25 per cent of the population of the Bedford area is made up of seniors 65 and older, and that sending older people who need CHSLD care outside of the region would make it harder for family and loved ones to take an active role in their care. “The government talks about localized services, but they’re closing services in the regions to focus on the cities. We have been working on this for 12 years and [the CIUSSS] just turned their back on it.”
The BPHC scheduled a public meeting on June 17 (after the BCN went to press) at the Centre Georges-Perron in Bedford. “Everyone is a bit shocked, and on Monday we’ll try to reassure people,” Messier-Peet said.
“It’s sad that we won’t have these beds – it’s especially sad for the foundation which has put a lot of effort and money into it. It’s sad that people who have lived their lives here might not be able to finish their lives here,” Bedford Mayor Claude Dubois said. He stopped short of saying he had lost confidence in the CIUSSS, saying “We just have to assume they’re acting in good faith.”
Rivard told the BCN that the 12 beds closed this summer were still expected to reopen this fall. According to a report in La Voix de l’Est, the CIUSSS’ most recent budget reflected a $43.8-million deficit.
“We are aware that some partners may be disappointed and we completely understand. We are continuing our partnership with a common goal of meeting the needs of the population. We have invested significantly in the development of home support services and we will improve the living environment at the CHSLD de Bedford,” CIUSSS spokesperson Karine Guay told the BCN.