The province is bringing in changes to help seniors have more of a choice in long-term care homes.

Health Minister Adrian Dix has announced that as of July 15, seniors will be able to pick their top three choices for long-term care facilities.

“This will make it more likely that they will be admitted to a care home of their choosing, and that the wait for admission will be shorter. The revisions to the long-term care access policy will ensure people receive detailed information about long-term care homes, including the average wait times to help people choose their preferred care home; access to the information they need to make decisions that are so important to their lives,” he says.

“This may mean that you go to an interim facility and are even there for a while, depending on the circumstances in the care home you’re waiting for. But it gives you more choices to be able to lay out in communities with multiple choices – as we know there will be some communities where there are fewer than three care homes in total – but where there are choices, it gives people the chance to make more choices.”

Dix says seniors on wait lists the longest will have priority on openings – something he says is not part of the current process.

He says up until now, seniors often haven’t been able to choose which care home they go to and have had to accept the first opening available.