Willy Van Klooster stands by one of two beds that sit empty at the Huron Hospice near Clinton. They aren’t just empty today; they’ve been empty since ‘opening’ nearly two years ago. “Almost exactly two years ago, we finished the construction and unfortunately have not received the money from the Ministry of Health to operate the two beds. They’ve indicated that we can’t open these two rooms, unless we have money from the Ministry to operate,” said Van Klooster, the Executive Director at the Huron Residential Hospice. Huron Hospice opened with four end-of-life care beds in 2018, but were always planning on moving to six beds, says Van Klooster, and the Ministry of Health knew that, approving initial architectural drawings for six beds at that time, he says. Then by 2023-2024, they had raised the more than $2 million to reach six beds, receiving approval from the Ministry to do so again, according to Van Klooster. “It is Ministry policy that they can’t actually give you money to do building or capital, unless they also attach to it the money to actually operate, which makes sense. So, we believed that that would happen,” said Van Klooster. But it hasn’t. In the latest Hospice Expansion Process in 2024, the province turned down Huron Hospice’s request for money to operate the two additional beds. “And frankly, we don’t know why because we were ready to go,” said Van Klooster. The Ministry of Health says the reason is simple; with three hospice beds in Exeter and four at Huron Hospice, there are already enough hospice beds in Huron County. “Following a review of local service needs, hospice capacity and regional access to care, the proposal was not selected because no hospice bed gap was identified in the Huron-Perth community,” said Lily Barnes, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health. “As community needs evolve, requests for additional hospice capacity may be reviewed through future planning processes.” Local mayors met with Ministry of Health officials at last week’s Association of Municipalities Conference, where they presented the case to fully fund Huron Hospice’s end of life care facility, outside of the usual six-to-seven-year expansion funding cycle. “They’re hesitant to fund beds in between funding rounds, which is basically the problem. But we gave them information of other ones that they have funded, in between the rounds. So, they really don’t have an excuse there,” said Jim Ginn, Municipality of Central Huron Reeve. “They seemed receptive, but I’ve been in many of these meetings, and it’s just too hard to tell whether they’ll actually act on it or not.” Van Klooster says they know of at least 76 people seeking end-of-life care they’ve had to turn away since August 2024 because two of their six beds are essentially “closed”. If they don’t open those beds soon, he says Huron Hospice will be challenged to keep the facility functional. Community gifts are essentially keeping them afloat. “Because we have to have two nurses 24 hours a day, seven days a week, we had to subsidize the Ministry $173,000 last year, just to pay for the nurses’ salaries and benefits. So, it’s not a good model. When we get to six beds, now we have additional money for those two beds that goes into our operating budget, and we wouldn’t have much additional cost in terms of nursing.” he said. “So, now we’re actually able to make ends meet. Frankly, we’ve just been kind of lucky that we’ve received those estate gifts that have helped us to keep operating. Otherwise, we’d be in more trouble. So, we’re okay right now. We’re doing alright, but certainly in the long term, we’ve really got to have those two beds funded.” The Ministry of Health says each year, they invest $126 million to provide compassionate palliative and end-of-life care throughout the province, and they are adding more palliative care services in communities with up to 84 new adult beds and 12 pediatric beds, bringing the total to 768 planned beds.
