The North East Local Health Integration Network (NE LHIN) announced Dec. 14 it will be providing $2.865 million to Sudbury Regional Hospital, enough money to care for the hospital’s alternate level of care (ALC) patients until March 31.

The patients, who no longer need acute care, but cannot get placements in community facilities such as nursing homes, will be cared for at the Memorial Hospital site for as long as 12 months.

“It (the funding) isn’t enough money to operate into the next fiscal year, but we expect further funding announcements as the provincial government sorts through their fiscal budget for next year,” said the hospital’s vice-president and chief nursing officer, Dave McNeil.

Acute care patients are being moved out of the Memorial site to the new one-site hospital at the end of January, and ALC patients will be moved there in mid-February.

There will be 136 beds at the ALC facility until April 28, at which time Pioneer Manor is expected to open more beds, and the number of beds at Memorial will be reduced by 60.

Sudbury Regional Hospital’s Laurentian site has been home to 56 Pioneer Manor patients since they were displaced by a fire a few years ago. These patients are not currently cared for out of the hospital’s budget.

The 128-bed St. Gabriel’s long-term care facility is also expected to open in Chelmsford in late 2010, and further reduce the need for ALC beds.

ALC patients have regularly taken up as much as 30 per cent of Sudbury Regional Hospital’s 507 beds.

According to the hospital’s website, there are 94 ALC patients currently being cared for in acute care beds, and 24 in transitional care beds.

The number of beds within the hospital system will go down to 429 with the opening of the one-site hospital early next year.

McNeil said the funding provided by the NE LHIN will also cover the cost of renovations on the Memorial site.

“There will be some minor renovations in terms of some painting and decorating, and getting some of the bathroom facilities ready for bathing. We need to get the bathrooms up to a better standard because of the mobility problems of this patient population.”

Terry Tilleczek, interim CEO of the NE LHIN, said in a press release that the funding announcement is “one piece of the ALC solution that many communities across northeastern Ontario confront each day.

"The NE LHIN will continue to work with community partners to move forward on additional solutions in order to increase quality patient care and decrease the number of ALC patients in our hospital’s acute care beds.”