Fewer seniors are waiting to get home support services, but it will be impossible to eliminate the waiting list – according to Quebec seniors’ minister Sonia Bélanger.
In a speech delivered to a provincial summit in Quebec City on Wednesday, Bélanger said that the waiting list which had 21,000 people last year has been reduced to 16,500 people as of March 31.
However, she claims that there will always be elderly people waiting for these services.
“It will not bring it back to zero within a year, it is impossible to do that,” she said in an interview with The Canadian Press. “There’s always going to be a waiting list because there are always people signing up every day.”
Home care support is a large issue in Quebec, with the population aging.
A report from the commissioner of health published in January found that in 2023, the system only met 10.7 per cent of home support needs, providing 25.4 million hours of services when 234 million hours were required.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews