Two more long-term care deaths

Patient Ombudsman hoping to hear public’s complaints about facilities

Ontario’s Patient Ombudsman wants to hear your complaints about long-term care homes, which have been hit especially hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

In Hamilton, two more residents of a long-term care home died of COVID-19, public health reported Tuesday.

Across Ontario, 154 long-term care homes are reporting outbreaks. Of the province’s 951 COVID-related deaths, 705 were long-term care home residents.

On Monday, the province’s Patient Ombudsman issued a call-out, asking for any and all complaints about longterm care homes from residents, families, staff or others. The office says that since it began tracking COVID-19-related complaints at the beginning of March, long-term care-related complaints have spiked by three times what the office normally sees.

Still, they’re looking for more. “We know that there are homes in the province we are not hearing about,” said Jason Oliver, a spokesperson for the Patient Ombudsman. “We want to make sure the complaints we receive are an accurate reflection of what is happening throughout all of Ontario, including Hamilton and surrounding regions.”

To date, the office has not received a COVID-19 complaint regarding a Hamilton-area care home.

On Tuesday, Hamilton public health reported two COVID-related deaths at Dundurn Place Care Centre, a long

term care home with no previous deaths. A 62-year-old man died April 25 and an 81-yearold man died April 26.

Hamilton’s COVID-19 death toll stands at 19, including four residents of Heritage Green Nursing Home and seven residents of Cardinal Retirement Residence.

Four Hamilton long-term care homes are reporting COVID-19 outbreaks: at Heritage Green Nursing Home in Stoney Creek, 12 residents and three staff tested positive, at St. Joseph’s Villa in Dundas, one resident tested positive, at Dundurn Place Care Centre on Mary Street, six residents and two staff tested positive and at Grace Villa on Lockton Crescent, one staff member tested positive. An outbreak is also ongoing at Cardinal Retirement Residence, which is not a long-term care facility but a retirement home, with 47 residents and 18 staff testing positive.

Hamilton has 416 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of Tuesday, including 108 health-care workers. Five additional cases are presumed positive. Also Tuesday, Hamilton Health Sciences reported a new outbreak at Juravinski Cancer Centre after two staff in the same department tested positive.

One tested positive Friday, April 24, and the other Monday, April 27. Staff who came in contact with the positive cases are being notified. No patients are believed to have come in contact with either infected worker.

A person who is homeless is among the new cases. They are now residing at the Bennetto Community Centre, a converted isolation space for homeless people who test positive for the virus. Another person who was homeless and residing at Bennetto has since recovered.

Craig Thompson, executive director with the Patient Ombudsman, said that since the pandemic began, the most common complaints to his office include severe staffing shortages, basic care and needs of residents not being met, inadequate infection prevention and poor communication with families and residents on the part of homes.

The Spectator has previously reported on communication breakdowns between homes and families — specifically at Heritage Green.

Thompson said when his office receives complaints, it triages them and ensure the most serious are dealt with rapidly by informing the care home along with the Ministries of Health and Long-Term Care and, potentially, the local public health unit.

Information gleaned from complaints could also inform future potential investigations looking at systemic breakdowns, he said.

Since March 2, nearly a quarter of the office’s 143 COVIDrelated complaints involved long-term care homes.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, Andrea Horwath, leader of the provincial NDP and MPP for Hamilton-Centre, called on the province to do more to protect those in long-term care homes.

In a morning news conference, Horwath called on the province to take over problemplagued long-term care homes, to mandate a minimum number of staff required to work in homes, to mandate minimum hours of care patients receive and to ensure homes are better prepared for outbreaks.

“It’s not rocket science,” she said.