{"id":13260,"date":"2020-06-24T22:19:31","date_gmt":"2020-06-25T02:19:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/?p=13260"},"modified":"2020-07-05T16:09:44","modified_gmt":"2020-07-05T20:09:44","slug":"covid-19-we-need-an-ethical-compass-for-fixing-long-term-care-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/index.php\/covid-19-we-need-an-ethical-compass-for-fixing-long-term-care-in-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19: We Need an Ethical Compass For Fixing Long-Term Care in Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

(June 23, 2020)<\/p>\n

By: David Pfrimmer, Zoomer<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s military recently reported<\/a><\/span>\u00a0the living conditions in some of the country\u2019s long-term care homes \u201cappeared to be nothing short of horrid and inhumane<\/span><\/a>.\u201d\u00a0As many as 82 per cent of all COVID-19 deaths in Canada<\/a><\/span>\u00a0have been connected to long-term care facilities.<\/p>\n

\n

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was angry, sad and frustrated. Ontario Premier Doug Ford called it \u201cgut-wrenching.\u201d Canadians, and the families of elderly residents, were stunned and justifiably outraged.<\/p>\n

But those familiar with the long-term care sector were shocked but not surprised. We have been \u201csleepwalking for decades<\/a><\/span>\u201d in not addressing problems, observed Gregory Marchildon, former executive director for the Romanow Commission on the Future of Health Care.<\/p>\n

Without clear ethical standards for long-term care, this won\u2019t be the last tragedy or crisis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Exposed Indifference<\/h3>\n

There are immediate problems to address. Our leaders\u2019 rush to fix them should not obscure the deeper problem of the ineffective public accountability that allowed this to happen. Sadly, it took a pandemic and a military deployment to expose the political indifference to the suffering of so many elderly people.<\/p>\n

Political accountability in health care is not a new problem. In the 2002 Royal Commission Report, \u201cBuilding on Values: The Future of Health Care in Canada<\/a><\/span>,\u201d former Saskatchewan premier Roy Romanow recommended that the Canada Health Act be amended to include\u00a0a sixth principle of \u201caccountability<\/a><\/span>.\u201d He said:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cCanadians are often left out in the cold, expected to blindly accept assertion as fact and told to simply trust governments and providers to do the job.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Once again, during COVID-19, provincial premiers are saying to the federal government, \u201cjust send us the money and leave the rest to us.\u201d This approach is part of the problem.<\/p>\n

Failing to include long-term care in the Canada Health Act was Medicare\u2019s original sin. Even in 1984, when the act was being negotiated, the Canadian Medical Association warned that standards in long-term care were\u00a0inadequate<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

According to a recent\u00a0Toronto Star<\/em>\u00a0poll<\/a><\/span>, 86 per cent of Canadians support bringing long-term care under the Canada Health Act to improve standards of care.<\/p>\n

Long-Term Care Is Health Care<\/h3>\n

Romanow repeatedly made the point that health care is a \u201cmoral enterprise, not a business venture<\/a><\/span>.\u201d Long-term care is health care. Canada needs a clear values benchmark by which to judge a government\u2019s performance and evaluate proposed reforms for delivery of care.<\/p>\n

There was passionate enthusiasm for strengthening universal public health care. After hundreds of conversations, roundtables and discussions, the EHCN recommended\u00a0A Health Care Covenant for All People in Canada<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>to the Romanow Commission hearings in Ottawa. During the Romanow hearings, I worked with the Ecumenical Health Network (EHCN) of the Canadian Council of Churches. We organized dozens of community meetings across Canada. Churches had done this in the 1960s to support the introduction of Medicare.<\/p>\n

Ethics was front and centre in Romanow\u2019s final report. Romanow endorsed our idea and recommended that governments adopt a\u00a0Canadian Health Covenant<\/a><\/span>\u00a0to provide a \u201ccollective vision for health care.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

We believed a covenant would be an ethical compass to hold governments to account for broader standards that would safeguard care for people.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The EHCN Covenant reaffirmed the principles of public administration, comprehensiveness, universality, portability and accessibility. We went further to recommend additional principles that are relevant to those in long-term care today.<\/p>\n

EHCN\u2019s first additional principle is social \u201csolidarity and justice.\u201d Solidarity and justice mean that, together, we share the responsibility for the burden of illness. This is especially important as people get older.<\/p>\n

Non-Discriminatory Care<\/h3>\n

Care must be non-discriminatory and open to all people in Canada. Those with special needs, and those from the Indigenous, LGBTQ, various cultural and religious communities, should have access to appropriate care.<\/p>\n

Care should focus on social health and well-being, using internationally recognized determinants of health.<\/p>\n

Health care, including long-term care, is a human right and a public good. Likewise, people have the right to participate in the decisions that affect them. It is deeply troubling to see the rights of residents and their families overlooked and even\u00a0violated in this current crisis<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

\n

Canada\u2019s new front-line heroes have for too long been unrecognized, underpaid and unpaid. The EHCN Covenant requires governments to adopt measures that \u201chonour the vocation of all who provide care, whether paid or unpaid.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Public administration must include public stewardship and accountability. Expanding for-profit privatization has not been good for long-term care. Even before the pandemic, the\u00a0Ontario Health Coalition<\/a><\/span>\u00a0reported residents in for-profit facilities have a\u00a010 per cent higher risk of dying<\/a><\/span>\u00a0and a\u00a020 per cent higher risk of being hospitalized<\/a><\/span>\u00a0than those in non-profit centres. For-profit facilities spend\u00a049 per cent on staffing compared to 75 per cent by not-for-profits<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

If Canadians want to know what the privatization of health care looks like, long-term care is a cautionary tale.<\/p>\n

Before the next health-care crisis, now is the time for the federal and provincial governments to adopt a Heath Covenant and to implement the standards of the Canada Health Act in long-term health care.<\/p>\n

Click here for original article<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(June 23, 2020) By: David Pfrimmer, Zoomer Canada\u2019s military recently reported\u00a0the living conditions in some of the country\u2019s long-term care homes \u201cappeared to be nothing short of horrid and inhumane.\u201d\u00a0As many as 82 per cent of all COVID-19 deaths in Canada\u00a0have been connected to long-term care facilities. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was angry, sad and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ohc-in-the-news"],"yoast_head":"\nCOVID-19: We Need an Ethical Compass For Fixing Long-Term Care in Canada - Ontario Health Coalition<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"(June 23, 2020) By: David Pfrimmer, Zoomer Canada\u2019s military recently reported\u00a0the living conditions in some of the country\u2019s long-term care homes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/index.php\/covid-19-we-need-an-ethical-compass-for-fixing-long-term-care-in-canada\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"COVID-19: We Need an Ethical Compass For Fixing Long-Term Care in Canada - 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