(October 9, 2020)<\/p>\n
By: News Staff, 99.1FM CKXS<\/p>\n
Health care advocates are calling on the provincial government to do more to protect residents in long term care.<\/p>\n
A small rally was held in front of MPP Rick Nicholls\u2019 Chatham constituency office yesterday with a motorcade of vehicles circling by the Heritage Road building, honking their horns.<\/p>\n
Last week, the province announced more than half a billion dollars to help long term care hire workers and purchase more equipment, but Shirley Roebuck, chair of the local chapter of the Ontario Health Coalition, says that\u2019s still not enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re making a bad wage or a good wage, if there\u2019s only an insignificant or inadequate number of people to take care of our folks in long term care, then the residents are going to suffer,\u201d Roebuck says.<\/p>\n
Nicole Grainger, president of Unifor Local 127 says attracting new people to train as personal support workers is a challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe it\u2019s gotten a bad rep because of the burnout, the lack of staffing, the lack of vacations,\u201d Grainger says. \u201cPeople don\u2019t want to go into that department in that industry because you\u2019re not guaranteed to finish. You could come out injured, you could never get time off the job, and you could work around the clock and it still wouldn\u2019t be enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Ontario Health Coalition demands the Ford government recruit and train more staff and provide a minimum daily standard of four hours of hands-on care for every resident.<\/p>\n