Private failure of elderly and infirm

Dear Editor:

Even two decades ago, long-term care workers had case loads so high that they often worked an entire shift without a single break. Then came the P3’s. Private companies bought public care homes and “brought in some efficiencies.”

Typically they laid off the entire staff and then offered to re-hire them at wages $6-$10 per hour less, without benefits. These “efficiencies” worked wonders for profitability.

A recent study showed that the treatment of long-term care patients in B.C. was much worse in private than in public facilities. The reasons for this aren’t hard to find. The thirst for profit led to even higher patient loads. Lower wages combined with higher patient loads resulted in staff shortages. Many people didn’t want to work in private care homes. Finally, staff shortages led to still higher patient loads. If a few workers were absent that day, the remaining workers couldn’t do all that was needed.

Then came COVID-19. Sizable outbreaks were triggered by care-home workers who worked while ill. Why didn’t these workers just stay home? Low wages left them without savings. Without paid sick leave, they couldn’t pay their rent or buy food.

I see governments and private operators as guilty of blindness to the fundamental needs of citizens – both the needs of care-home workers and the needs of those they care for.

But I’m guilty too. I saw workers denied a living wage and working in oppressive conditions. I took no action. I left politics to the politicians. In the new world of COVID-19, we have discovered that low-level health care workers aren’t doing “menial” work. They are caring for the old and infirm.

The federal government plans to spend $4 billion to improve the wages of “essential workers” during the pandemic. But that measure is only temporary. We used to pay care-home workers a living wage. We used to pay other “menial” workers a living wage. Why can’t we do that again?

Gary Willis, Kelowna