Blowing the whistle on COVID at LTC sites

Culture of secrecy keeps dangers hidden

OTTAWA • In simple, chilling language, the personal support worker lifts a curtain on what the COVID-19 pandemic has looked like from the front lines of devastated long- term care homes: Bodies of residents piling up, desperate staff shortages, fear.

“One after another of the residents started dying. I was scared to come back after a few days off, not knowing how many would be left. It is not right, so short staffed and bodies of the people I cared for piling up,” the PSW wrote in a Sept. 27 email sent to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Doug Ford, among others.

The worker ended the email with a plea for help: “Please do something to save the workers and the residents that have survived so far.”

Although many personal support workers have experienced the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic in long- term care homes, their perspective is rarely heard in discussions about what went wrong and how to improve things.

Those who do speak out, like this one, often remain nameless and faceless out of fear that they will lose their jobs if they talk publicly about the situation inside homes.

It creates a culture of secrecy that exacerbates problems, one that is enforced with stern warnings from many long- term care employers, says Candace Rennick, a former PSW who is secretary- treasurer of CUPE Ontario.

“People have been told if you speak out you will be fired on the spot,” Rennick said. “The message has been sent loud and clear.”

Both CUPE and Ontario’s patient ombudsman, Cathy Fooks, are pushing for better protection of health-care workers who speak out. In a recent report on experiences in long-term care during the pandemic, the patient ombudsman thanked the workers who stepped forward with concerns, despite their fears, and called for extended whistleblower protection for health-care workers.

Fooks wrote: “The information these individuals provided brought needed attention to the appalling circumstances in a number of Ontario’s long- term care homes and likely spurred the government to take significant action, including calling in the Canadian Armed Forces. This saved lives.”

But there is only limited whistleblower protection for health- care workers under Ontario law — specifically relating to disclosures to the Ministry of Long-term Care and during a coroner’s inquest. That needs to expand, her office recommended.

CUPE, meanwhile is seeking protection so some frontline health-care workers can meet with the province’s Long-term Care Commission, which is investigating COVID-19 in the province’s long-term care homes.

“T he L ong- Term Care Commission does not guarantee protection of front-line workers who come forward to tell their stories,” Rennick said. “If front- line workers can’t even come and freely tell their stories, there is something seriously messed up about that.”

CUPE and the province are in talks about the issue, she said.

Although some things have changed in Ontario’s long- term care homes since the first wave of COVID-19 — including more testing, fewer residents sharing rooms, some on- site treatment for infected residents — the culture of secrecy remains in place. It has even followed some workers to the grave.

Three Ottawa long- term care workers have died from COVID-19. One other Ottawa long- term care worker survived COVID-19, but passed it on to her husband, who later died in hospital.

During the summer, some of those workers were remembered during a small ceremony in a garden outside Madonna Care Community in Orléans, where two health-care workers died after becoming infected.

“In memory of those who sacrificed their lives to help others. You will never be forgotten,” was written on a card distributed to staff and family members at the ceremony.

But their sacrifices are largely unknown.

A relative of one personal support worker said her family begged her not to return to work as the home became overwhelmed with

People have been told if you speak out you will be fired.

COVID- 19 cases. But the worker insisted on going because nobody else was there to look after the residents. Within days, she was in hospital where she later died. Members of her family have asked that she not be identified.

That culture of secrecy is compounded by the fact that data on Canadian healthcare workers who have died during the pandemic is difficult to find and inconsistent.

The Canadian Institute for Health Information, using data gathered from federal, provincial and territorial public health or ministry websites, reported 12 health workers have died from COVID-19 in Canada — nine in Ontario and three in Quebec.

Public Health Ontario reported 13 deaths among health- care workers in Ontario as of June 22 — eight of them from long- term care. The province reports that 2,712 health- care workers have become infected.

“This is not just a data issue, but a matter of who counts as a ‘ health worker’ and how much they count to the government agencies tasked with safeguarding them.”

Rennick said she believes the experience will leave scars on many health- care workers for a long time.

The anonymous personal support worker, who survived COVID-19, fears what the coming weeks will be like in long- term care and the impact that will have.

“I don’t know if I can go through that again, but because of the person that I am, I will be there for the residents that remain.”