Sixty new nursing home beds officially opened in Moncton, N.B., Monday.
Garraway Hall, which is now the third Shannex Nursing Home to open under the same roof in the city, is ready to welcome residents as early as Tuesday.
The new 60-bed unit is connected to both Gordon Hall and Ocean Hall. It’s designed to provide a sense of community amongst all its residents with a café, town hall, hair salon and multi-purpose room – all of which branch off an internal main street connecting the three houses.
On Monday, Shannex and government officials held a ribbon cutting and grand opening. Shannex president Jason Shannon says there will be an immediate benefit to the new space.
“Every time we open a nursing home, we work with our partners in the acute care system and of the 60 new private nursing home rooms that will be located here at Garraway Hall, over 50 will come directly from hospital, from The Moncton Hospital and the George Dumont,” he said.
Shannon added Shannex works closely with the Department of Social Development.
“When they open a new nursing home, often what we do is we work from a strategic perspective and make sure that we are looking at the hospitals to see who’s been at the hospital for a long time and so we do a placement that’s a little unique when we open a nursing home for the first time and so it really has a great benefit for the community immediately,” said Shannon.
He adds anyone in the community can put their name on the waiting list.
“Garraway is a fully licensed nursing home by the Department of Social Development, so all New Brunswickers can live at Garraway and the government pays for the health-care costs of people staying in the Garraway home and each person pays for what they can afford to pay for the accommodation,” said Shannon.
The Department of Social Development says, as of Feb. 28, 1,060 people are awaiting long-term care placements, with 458 of those waiting in hospital. Currently, the province has 78 nursing homes with 5, 373 beds.
The new nursing home already has a wait list of 75 people, according to Shannon, and a few will move in each day over the next month-and-a-half until all of the rooms are occupied.
On top of providing 60 beds for New Brunswickers waiting for a nursing home placement, 80 new team members were also hired to help staff the new building.
Shannex is also currently working closely with the City of Moncton on a new master place to expand their senior services even further in the city.
“We have another 60 acres next door that will hopefully go to city council this June as a master plan community for up to about 5,000 people,” said Shannon.
As of April 2025, the province says there are 180 new nursing home beds under construction to help address long-term care needs.
“The Province is working to improve the ALC assessment process in hospitals and continues to work closely with the regional health authorities to do so,” reads a statement from the Department of Social Development.
“A working group has been established between senior executive leaders of Social Development, the Department of Health, the Vitalité Health Network, the Horizon Health Network, and Extra-Mural to share information and develop and implement actions to further reduce pressure on the system.”
The Department of Social Development says the Horizon Health Network has introduced a new assessment process in the Fredericton region that is in the process of being evaluated. It includes:
- long-term care placement assessments
- arrangement of interim home support services
- coordination of support services for patients transitioning back to the community, or into long-term care facilities
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