The Independent MHA for Humber-Bay of Islands wants the decision to move long-term care patients from the old Western Memorial Regional Hospital to be put on hold until they can be housed closer to home.

Eddie Joyce says he has been contacted by family members who were told their loved ones will have to be moved out of the Corner Brook area, away from family and friends.

Municipal Affairs Minister John Haggie says solutions are being found on a case-by-case basis.

“That could be re-housing, as it were, under the first available bed policy, or it could be staying where you are in the new acute care facility until a bed in the geographical area becomes available,” Haggie said in response to Joyce in the House of Assembly. “Those are individual options and I would encourage the families to continue to work with Western zone.”

That did nothing to appease Joyce.

“I just wanted to let the minister know there is no option to move to the new acute care facility. That is absolutely not true.”

Paulette Morgan, the senior director of hospital and clinical services with NL Health Services Western zone, says officials are looking at services to meet the physical and emotional needs of residents, with a focus on minimizing the isolation felt by those in acute care.

That will see some patients moved to a long-term care facility in Bay St. George, about an hour’s drive from Corner Brook.

But Morgan says people are being given the option to keep family members at home.

“What we do know is that a lot of elderly individuals do prefer to stay at home in a more familiar environment,” she said. “So we will work with families to explore options to wrap services around individuals so that they can maintain staying in their own home.”