{"id":11083,"date":"2020-04-18T13:40:43","date_gmt":"2020-04-18T17:40:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/?p=11083"},"modified":"2020-04-29T09:12:22","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T13:12:22","slug":"long-term-care-is-now-the-front-line-of-ontarios-covid-19-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/index.php\/long-term-care-is-now-the-front-line-of-ontarios-covid-19-battle\/","title":{"rendered":"Long-term care is now the front line of Ontario\u2019s COVID-19 battle"},"content":{"rendered":"
(April 17, 2020)<\/p>\n
By: Emma McIntosh, National Observer<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
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In some ways, long-term care was a COVID-19 storm waiting to happen.<\/p>\n
The virus is most deadly to elderly people and those with pre-existing health conditions \u2014 the main demographics for long-term-care facilities, which across the country have been ravaged by COVID-19.<\/p>\n
But government decisions have made it worse. Combine the pre-existing risk with the chronic understaffing and underfunding that have plagued long-term care in Ontario and across the country, and you have the makings of an accelerating disaster.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is impossible to imagine the anguish that families and indeed our elders are going through in this situation,\u201d Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday. \u201cWe need to do a better job of being there for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a few horrifying cases, medical staff have abandoned their long-term-care jobs, leaving the sick to die and the living to suffer. And even with the best care possible, residents have died alone, their family members not allowed inside to say goodbye.<\/p>\n
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But the long-term-care outbreaks have been especially bad in Ontario, while some provinces have been weeks ahead in making key moves to address the crisis.<\/p>\nOntario Long-Term-Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton, shown in 2018, says the province is doing everything it can to stop the spread of COVID-19 in long-term care. File photo by Alex T\u00e9treault<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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\u2018No one gives us back time\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n
The problem struck British Columbia first, as a cascade of cases and deaths at North Vancouver\u2019s Lynn Valley Care Centre caught national attention in March. The province has made several critical moves since then.<\/p>\n
B.C. barred long-term-care staffers from working at more than one facility on March 27. Many have part-time hours at multiple workplaces, and must work at several to make ends meet. But the practice, flagged as a problem after the deadly SARS outbreak in 2003, has also allowed for COVID-19 to spread rapidly between care homes.<\/p>\n
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The Ontario government says it has acted quickly and often to stop the spread of the virus in long-term care. But B.C. acted weeks earlier, and critics say key problems should have been addressed a month ago. #onpoli<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Days later, B.C.issued a six-month order requiring care homes to top up those workers\u2019 wages. (Quebec, which has also massively struggled with long-term-care outbreaks, topped up long-term-care staff wages earlier this month as well).<\/p>\n
Ontario didn\u2019t issue an order barring long-term-care staff from working at multiple facilities until Wednesday. It doesn\u2019t take effect until April 22, lasts two weeks and leaves a loophole for temp staffers.<\/p>\n
\u201cRestrictions much tighter than these should have been put in place weeks ago,\u201d Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
And though Premier Doug Ford originally said he\u2019d top up Ontario\u2019s notoriously low wages for such workers, the province has since deferred that to the federal government and encouraged long-term-care homes to give staff full-time hours.<\/p>\n
The issue of wage increases for long-term-care staff topped the agenda for a phone call between Trudeau and provincial and territorial leaders Thursday night. They \u201cagreed on the urgent need to ensure long-term-care facilities have the resources they need to protect the health and well-being of their residents and workers,\u201d a summary of the call released by the Prime Minister\u2019s Office said. (In general, long-term care is a provincial responsibility.)<\/p>\n
Ford has repeatedly said Ontario placed an \u201ciron ring\u201d around the elderly, acting early and often in stopping the spread in long-term care. The government has given the system infusions of extra funding, and updated provincial guidelines. And the province rolled out an action plan this week that involves enhanced testing \u2060\u2014 though it still is not testing all long-term-care residents and staff, as Quebec has \u2060\u2014 and redeploying \u201cCOVID-19 SWAT teams\u201d of experts from local hospitals.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe were active and decisive for months, putting in every measure under the guidance of the chief medical officer of health and public health,\u201d Long-Term-Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton said Friday. \u201cClearly, COVID-19 is spreading in a different way and more tools are needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
This week, Dr. David Williams, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, said he doesn\u2019t have evidence the province could\u2019ve saved lives had it taken action sooner.<\/p>\n
The non-profit Ontario Health Coalition said in a statement Friday that the province’s actions fall short of what’s needed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cWe are increasingly frustrated with the disconnect between the statements of the premier and what is actually being put into the regulations, directives and guidance issued by his own government,\u201d executive director Natalie Mehra said in the press release.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are inundated with calls and emails from families with loved ones in long-term care and staff in the homes, crying, afraid, furious about the lack of testing, even in homes with outbreaks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Doris Grinspun, CEO of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, said the province should have acted a month ago, when her organization first raised concerns. She also said there is much more that remains to be done.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one gives us back time,\u201d Grinspun said in an interview Thursday. \u201cWe can only do the best we do with the time we have left, until there is a vaccine.\u201d<\/p>\n
How did it get so bad in Ontario?<\/strong><\/p>\n
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