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October 09, 2020 - 7:30 AM
Cottonwoods Care Centre has been looking area seniors for decades but its years of service are coming to an end.
The Central Okanagan Regional Hospital District Board was asked by Interior Health today, Oct. 8, to help fund a business plan to replace the aging facility.
First opened in 1976 and expanded in 1984, it has 221 beds providing a variety of care levels. Those include 60 short term beds, two respite beds and 43 beds in each of three other units.
But it also houses four people to a room, something the province is moving away from in favour of single occupancy rooms except for some couples rooms.
According to B.C. Senior’s Advocate Isobel Mackenzie, 76 per cent of long term care residents in B.C. are in single rooms and there are not many facilities that still have four beds.
The request to the regional hospital board was for local taxpayers to pitch in $100,000 of the $250,000 cost of the plan that will be submitted to the Ministry of Health.
There was no indication in the request of how long it will take to complete the plan.
In July, the ministry announced that 495 new long term care beds will be built in the Interior Health region, including 140 in Kelowna, but it’s not clear whether the Cottonwoods beds are included in that.
READ MORE: Hundreds of long term care beds headed to the Okanagan and Kamloops next year
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