Care homes told filling gaps up to them
As COVID-19 cases began creeping up in September, the Ontario government warned long-term care homes it was up to them to deal with critical staff shortages.
According to a memo obtained by the Citizen, the province's deputy minister of long-term care acknowledged serious staff shortages in long-term care heading into a second wave and told homes it was their responsibility to solve the problem.
“Ensuring the provision of required staffing is ultimately the responsibility of the licensee and I ask that you continue to do what you can to address this most pressing need,” Richard Steele wrote in a Sept. 11 memo.
Steele encouraged homes that are part of a chain to “look to the chain to assist in addressing staffing issues.” He added that hospitals were less likely to be able to help during the second wave as some had in the spring.
“Please note that going forward, the supply of hospital resources is becoming more scarce as hospitals address their own human resource challenges and ramp up services.”
The province's approach to staff shortages in long-term care was condemned Friday by provincial NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.
“It is completely shameful that long-term care homes are on their own after the devastation we saw in wave one. Literally nothing was done.”
In a statement, a spokesman for the Ministry of Long-Term Care said the province is investing $540 million, in part to improve infection prevention and control, shore up personal protective equipment stockpiles and to build “a stronger workforce” in long-term care homes. Some of the money will help homes pay for additional staffing. But a comprehensive staffing strategy for long-term care won't be ready until the end of the year, the statement said.
Critics say the government is doing too little and far too late.
In July, an advisory group appointed by the provincial government called for urgent action to address the staffing crisis in long-term care. Horwath said the government should have spent the summer working to hire and train more long-term care workers and making the jobs and hours more attractive, something that both Quebec and British Columbia have done.
During the summer, the government asked every long-term care home in the province to fill out a detailed assessment of their preparedness for a second wave. The assessments flagged “key gaps” in staffing and infection prevention and control.
In response, Steele reminded homes they are required to have an infection prevention and control program, and an outbreak management system in place. He said the ministry would be implementing “programs and supports to help build the sector's capacity” in staffing and infection control, but added that staffing is the responsibility of homes.
The new funding is part of that, according to the statement from the Ministry of Long-Term Care, which said it has been monitoring the situation and has taken “aggressive action.”
The impact of staff shortages in the first wave of COVID-19 in Ontario — during which more than 1,800 long-term care residents died — has been widely documented by family members and organizations. The Canadian military wrote a damning report after being deployed to several homes near Toronto.
On Friday, Ottawa's Christine Collins, whose brother lives at Carlingview Manor talked about the impact of staff shortages while her brother was locked down and sick last spring. Sixty-one Carlingview residents died during the first wave of the pandemic. Collins was speaking at a virtual news conference with Horwath and Ottawa Centre MPP Joel Harden. The NDP has released a plan to end for-profit long-term care homes in the province as part of a major reform.
Collins' brother, who has dementia, entered Carlingview Manor on April 1 and contracted COVID-19 three weeks later. She said she called the home with concerns that other residents were wandering in and out of his room but was told it was his responsibility to tell them to leave because there weren't enough staff to do so. She said she blames the home for his infection and ongoing symptoms.
Collins documented how difficult it was to get information while he was sick. Between April 15 and May 23 when he was COVID-free, she said she made 35 calls that went unanswered, left nine messages that went unanswered and received one call from a doctor about her brother's condition.
She said she usually called after her brother told her he was in pain with severe headaches, difficulty breathing or chest pains.
“Staff did their very best through all of this, but it was clear that things were really bad,” she said.
“They are still really short staffed and that is a real issue and problem.”