‘It’s heartbreaking’: Countless Newfoundland seniors ‘being warehoused’ in emergency rooms at 230 beds long-term care beds lay empty across the island

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — For the past seven months, 85-year-old Dick Riche has been in a bed at St. Clare’s Mercy Hospital waiting to be moved to one of the 230 empty long-term care beds in Newfoundland.

Due to a lack of staff, as of Feb. 9, there were about 140 vacant long-term care beds in Eastern Health, 51 in Central Health, and 39 in Western Health. There were no vacant beds in Labrador-Grenfell Health.

Those numbers were provided by the Department of Health and Community Services.

“It’s heartbreaking to know that there’s so much inefficiency in health care that my father is stuck in an old brick Victorian building, being warehoused because government doesn’t have the wherewithal to make tough decisions,” said Dick’s son, John Riche.