City restricts care staff to working in one home

The City of Ottawa is banning staff at its four long-term care homes from working at more than one facility. The policy, which took effect April 13, is aimed at preventing the spread of COVID -19.

The city sent a notice telling workers that they must work exclusively for the city during the pandemic or be placed on a leave of absence, Dean Lett, the city’s director of long-term care said in a statement.

“Staff of city long-term care homes will be required to sign an attestation that they are not working outside of the city-operated care homes,” Lett said.

Staff who have recently worked at care facilities with COVID-19 outbreaks or have been in contact with patients at other facilities or at hospitals will be required to self-isolate for 14 days before returning to work, he said.

In introducing the new policy, the city has gone beyond the province’s requirements.

In recent changes to provincial guidelines aimed at slowing the growing number of outbreaks at long-term care homes and seniors residences across Ontario, the province mandated more testing (although not testing for everyone) and broader use of protective equipment inside the homes with vulnerable elderly populations.

“Wherever possible, employers should work with employees to limit the number of work locations that employees are working at, to minimize risk to patients of exposure to COVID-19,” the province’s chief medical officer Dr. David Williams wrote in a directive released last week.

Long-term care workers have traditionally worked one or two jobs in order to earn enough to live on. In British Columbia, workers were banned in March from working at more than one home. The province also boosted their salaries.

In Ontario, which now has 89 outbreaks at long-term care homes, homes are now allowed to bring in volunteers and untrained workers to fill staffing gaps, something that could eventually put downward pressure on staff wages.

Among the worst outbreaks in the province is Almonte Country Haven where, as of Monday, 16 residents had died of COVID-19.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath has been pressing the province to mandate that long-term care workers work in only one home “and pay them enough to be able to do that.”

“We do need to do everything possible to protect seniors in longterm care,” she said in a statement Monday.