A new long term care home in Bedford has filled nearly all of its rooms.
Moody Hall in Bedford, near Halifax, was slated to open in the summer, but it welcomed the first 72 residents in November, and another 72 started moving into their rooms in April, according to a news release from the province.
A spokesperson for Shannex, who owns the facility, said all the residents will move in by mid-June.
When you walk into the facility, you’ll find a common area with a sign post pointing to the different neighbourhoods, where residents stay, but there’s also a mock town hall, a florist, a schoolhouse, a cafe and more.
Shannex President Jason Shannon calls it their main street plan. He said it that design started in New Brunswick about five years ago, and they’ve been putting it in nursing homes ever since.
“We saw how wonderful it is for residents and families in our community to have a really nice, open area where they can stay connected. And so, yeah, we built this in our nursing home designs going forward,” said Shannon.
“When we bring the residents and families into Main Street, we bring in all kinds of events. People really come alive, and then they feel like it’s an open space and they can be themselves.”
He said about 25 years ago they left behind the hospital-style design of nursing homes–what he calls the “institutional design.” They want to build long-term care homes that people find warm and welcoming, places they are proud to call home, he said.
Shannon would not reveal how much the facility cost.
He said it was a multi-million-dollar building, but the exact cost is private.
Seniors Minister Barb Adams said they cannot reveal the price of the facility because they’re building so many across the province. Companies offer bids to do the projects, and the province chooses the lowest one. And they need to “respect that process so that we can get the best price for Nova Scotians,” Adams told reporters on Tuesday.
She said any facilities built across the province have to fall within a budget range.
Freeing up hospital beds
The long-term care home free up hospitals beds by moving those acute patients to dedicated facilities like Woody Hall.
In the province, Halifax has the third longest wait time for a spot in a long-term care home at 110 days, but it has the largest amount of people on the list at 747. The second longest list is Cape Breton, with 255 people waiting.
“It is the solution to the crisis in acute care, which is waiting for beds to provide surgeries and those acute needs and for waiting time to get into long term care, it reduces both the wait times for both acute care and into long term care,” said Adams.
The province is aiming to create 5,700 long-term care spaces by 2032. Since they came up with the plan in 2020, Adams said they have created more than 650. According to a news release, 2,000 of those spaces are now under construction.
“We’re never moving fast enough. If I could wave a magic wand, we would have opened them all yesterday, but there are dozens more nursing homes yet to get started, including one in my own community,” said Adams.
