Residents, families raise alarm at Grace Dart

Residents of the Grace Dart Extended Care Centre and their families are sounding an alarm over staff shortages they say could be endangering lives.

“We need help here, big help,” said resident Annie Pinkney, 88, who has tested positive for the virus but so far has no symptoms.

“Isn’t the army supposed to be coming in?” added Pinkney, who shares a room with three other women in a section of the east end nursing home reserved for residents with COVID-19.

On Wednesday, Premier François Legault asked the federal government to send in 1,000 troops to help out in CHSLDS (long-term care centres), in addition to the 100 who arrived on the weekend. The premier said efforts to recruit 2,000 health-care workers to alleviate staff shortages have fallen short.

At the Grace Dart, where a personal care assistant, Victoria Salvan, died of the virus last week, there’s not enough staff to meet all the needs, Pinkney said in a telephone interview.

“Last night we had only one helper on the whole floor,” said Pinkney, who moved there one year ago after being hospitalized at the Jewish General Hospital for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

On Monday, a resident on her floor died of COVID-19, she said.

As of Wednesday, 70 of the 260 residents had tested positive for the virus, according to the provincial health department. The number has doubled in a week.

Pinkney said she is mobile, but many residents are in diapers and unable to get out of bed without assistance. She said she feels fine and has no fever or cough, despite having tested positive for COVID-19.

“My immune system must be pretty good,” said Pinkney, who almost died last year and spent time in palliative care before making an unexpected recovery.

But she misses her usual activities, like playing bingo, going out to restaurants and visiting her sister.

“You think I wouldn’t like to go outside to take a walk?” asked the retired bookkeeper, who grew up in the nearby Hochelaga district and later lived in St-laurent.

Life bears no resemblance to regular routines before the pandemic, she said. Meals don’t arrive on schedule and attendants don’t change and bathe residents as often as before, she said.

Pinkney’s sister, Linda Pinkney-zlotnic, 67, said she fears her sister’s health could deteriorate.

“I’m just worried about the lack of care,” she said. “Even though they’re old, they have a right to live.”

Jonathan Deschamps, president of Local 2881 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, said the situation at the Grace Dart is taking a heavy toll on employees as well as residents.

“The basic working conditions were already difficult and the wages are not very high, so (even before the pandemic) they were already missing a lot of employees,” he said.

“Now, with the COVID -19 crisis, they are missing even more personal care assistants.

“Obviously it creates a lot of anxiety and sadness because there are not enough employees to give the level of care that the residents are entitled to.”

Union rep Jacques Edouard Baron said employees at the Grace Dart only started being tested for COVID -19 on Monday.

Their overwhelming fear is of contracting the virus, he said.

“They’re afraid for their safety,” he said, adding there is a sufficient supply of personal protective equipment.

In answer to the Montreal Gazette’s questions, the Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux de l’ouest-del’île-de-montréal issued a statement saying it has sent doctors and volunteers to reinforce staff at the centre and is asking the health department for help in solving staffing shortages.

“We are identifying the establishments that will receive reinforcements as a priority, but we can already affirm that Grace Dart will receive them as a priority,” it said.