A former cabinet minister and personal care home operator says government recognizes the backlogs created by a lack of beds in the long-term care system, and is working to address it.

Paul Oram, who served as health minister under the former PC government, operates personal care homes in the province, with a sixth ready to open in St. John’s.

He says over his last 30 years in the industry, he’s never seen so many personal care home residents who require increased levels of care and attention while waiting to get into long term care.

That’s where the problem lies says Oram.

“When an individual becomes so difficult to care for within the personal care home setting, and then we have sometimes no other alternative but to send them to a hospital, and the hospital then has to keep them until they can get into a level 3 (long-term care setting)…there’s where the problem lies. Government recognizes it, (and) government has recognized this for a while.”

Oram says he expects that government will likely move away from building more long-term care homes, and more toward the creation of more intensive care packages within the existing system.