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<\/p>\n(May 24, 2020)<\/p>\n
By: Sue-Ann Levy, Toronto Sun<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When provincial long-term care minister Merrilee Fullerton announced an independent commission into long-term care homes a week ago, the question on the minds of many advocates and families who\u2019ve lost loved ones has been whether it will truly be free of influence by deep-pocketed vested interests.<\/p>\n
Fullerton has contended the long-term care (LTC) system is \u201cbroken.\u201d<\/p>\n
But as I\u2019ve learned, the system was terribly broken long before the pandemic.<\/p>\n
It is unconscionable that more than 1,500 seniors in LTC homes had to die from COVID-19 to make everyone pay attention.<\/p>\n
It has become clear to me during this crisis that LTC homes wield incredible power. Officials know full well that people are living longer, that families often turn to homes when they are desperate and can no longer keep their loved ones in the community and that the demand exceeds supply.<\/p>\n
We don\u2019t have to look any further than the absolute and bordering on dispassionate refusal by LTC homes to permit essential caregivers into facilities especially given that their loved ones \u2014 most of them with high needs \u2014 have declined in isolation over the past 10 weeks.<\/p>\n
This is despite a May 6 Ministry of Health directive which listed family \u201ccaregivers\u201d as essential, presumably to enable them to be permitted into LTC homes.<\/p>\n
To date, despite much media attention and many pleas from families, Fullerton has remained silent on this issue \u2014 leaving one to wonder whether the tail wags the dog.<\/p>\n
The LTC home lobby is tremendously powerful and there is incredible money tied up in for-profit homes. According to the Long-Term Care Association\u2019s own figures, about 58% of their 626 members are for-profit and about 40% either not-for-profit or municipal homes.<\/p>\n
The industry has deep pockets.<\/p>\n
Former premier Mike Harris is chair of the board of Chartwell Retirement Residences, headquartered in Mississauga. Its stock trades on the TSX. So does Extendicare stock.<\/p>\n
One has to look no further than the number of Conservative insiders who\u2019ve already signed up to lobby the province on behalf of the big players to know how important the profit motive really is to the industry.<\/p>\n
According to a statement from the NDP caucus earlier this week, Conservative strategist Leslie Noble, campaign manager for Harris in 1995 and 1999, signed up at the end of March to lobby for Chartwell.<\/p>\n
Melissa Lantsman, spokesman for Ford in 2018 campaign, signed up to lobby on behalf of Extendicare at the end of April.<\/p>\n
Natalie Mehra, executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition, fears there\u2019s been no commitment from the province that no one with a vested interest will be appointed to the commission.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one from the industry should be sitting as a commissioner \u2026 this needs to be an impartial clear-eyed view of what has happened in long-term care and what needs to change,\u201d she said this week.<\/p>\n
She said the homes are now \u201cdesperately understaffed\u201d but they still won\u2019t let family caregivers in to help.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the reasons is that it\u2019s easier to keep them out because they don\u2019t have anyone complaining, they don\u2019t have anyone advocating,\u201d she said. \u201cThe interests of operators are often different from those of families.\u201d<\/p>\n
No kidding.<\/p>\n
Paddy Bowen, a spokesman for the newly created Seniors For Social Action (Ontario) with decades of experience in long-term care, agrees that it could become an \u201cinsider process\u201d compromised by lobbyists and special interests.<\/p>\n
She feels the existence of the dominant full-profit element in long-term care is appalling to her \u2014 especially places that \u201csiphon off\u201d money to shareholders that should be going to care.<\/p>\n
Bowen claims the for-profit homes \u2014 in order to deliver results to shareholders \u2014 have not increased their staffing ratios in keeping with the changing (higher) needs of people who come into their homes.<\/p>\n
She also notes that inspections of LTC homes have now been reduced to phone calls.<\/p>\n