Some nursing homes pause admissions due to staffing levels: Nursing home association

According to Michele Lowe, 17 long-term care homes had to stop accepting new admissions as of last week

CITYnews\ Chris Halef

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The executive director of the Nursing Homes of Nova Scotia Association says a number of homes have had to pause admissions due to staffing shortages.

According to Michele Lowe, 17 long-term care homes had to stop accepting new admissions as of last week.

She told CityNews Halifax it’s due to low staffing levels.

“COVID has certainly exposed the lack of investments that have occurred and certainly workforce is one of those areas,” she said. “We are now at a place in this province where we have to put a pause on admissions to long-term care because there are simply not enough staff to be able to provide the day-to-day care that’s required.”

Of the staff needed, Lowe said they are very low on continuing care assistants.

“They are for certain that core group that are having the biggest impact,” said Lowe. “But we do still have LPNs and RNs that are either off or we just don’t have enough staff to fill those vacancies as well.”

Lowe said this is having an equal impact on nursing homes across the province, adding there are others that are on the cusp of halting new admissions.

Recently, the province announced it would be investing $1.7 million to recruit continuing care assistants and other health-care workers.

Lowe said she feels this is a good initiative, but adds in order to provide quality care in nursing homes, they need to pay staff appropriate wages.