Residents and staff at the Pines Care Home in 亚洲天堂 Lake rely on bedside callers to alert someone if extra help is needed. The system hasn鈥檛 been working for a couple of weeks and the system is so old that repairing it is impossible.

The facility is run by Northern Health and any capital costs or repairs are their responsibility.

鈥淚t can鈥檛 be repaired,鈥� said Eryn Collins, a spokesperson for Northern Health, 鈥淧arts are no longer available and the manufacturer no longer supports the system.鈥�

Replacing the system is an expensive proposition and will not happen quickly.

鈥淭he cost would be over the threshold where we have to go to a tendering process,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat threshold is $75,000, and we expect it to cost more than that.鈥�

Its to early to tell when the new system could in place as Northern Health is currently studying the needs of the facility in order to work up a detailed engineering description of what鈥檚 needed.

鈥淏ecause the system is going to be a replacement rather than just a repair, we鈥檙e going to need time to look into what we want and need in terms of a new system, so there鈥檚 going to be a bit of an opportunity here to make sure that it fits our current needs鈥�, Collins said.

鈥淏ut we鈥檝e got  a contingency plan in place to deal with the absence of that particular equipment,鈥� Collins said.  鈥淔or now, the staff are doing hourly checks on the residents and bringing in more staff to cover areas during higher workload times.鈥�

They also have whistles and walkie-talkies available for residents that are able to use them.