We continue to fail vulnerable LTC residents

If there was ever any doubt, there isn’t now: The Ontario government is failing in its efforts to combat COVID-19 in long-term and retirement care facilities. Utterly failing.

Some current examples. A group of LTC workers at Grace Villa in Hamilton released letters detailing what they have witnessed, including residents lying on urine-soaked mattresses, others waiting 30 minutes for help while choking, residents lying in soiled, soaked underwear on bare mattresses, residents needing and not getting basic hydration. Said one horrific account: “We had residents sorting through the boxes of garbage ... I saw more than one person wearing dirty gowns, carrying dirty gloves and eating food that we had not given them.”

This is the stuff of nightmares, which staff at Grace Villa can also attest to: “The images of residents, some hanging out of beds moaning, vomiting, crying, it is all too much to bear,” one read. “I still can’t sleep at night.”

In Niagara and other regions, the province has had to put hospital systems in charge of homes struck by outbreaks, including Oakwood Park Lodge in Niagara Falls where more than 100 residents and 100 staff have tested positive, and where dozens have died.

In Barrie, at Roberta Place Long Term Care Home, almost every resident has contracted COVID-19. Genome sequencing has also confirmed that a highly transmissible variant of the virus first detected in the United Kingdom has been found at the home, according to the local public health unit. The facility was reporting 44 resident deaths as of Monday.

And these scenarios are being repeated in one form or another across the province.

It’s not that the province is doing nothing, as Premier Doug Ford and his ministers are quick to point out. It is spending more than $4 million to “increase prevention and containment efforts in Hamilton” as an example. A spokesperson for the ministry of longterm care said “We have invested $1.38 billion to ensure that our long-term-care homes have the resources they need to battle this terrible virus. We will continue to act to support homes in protecting our most vulnerable.”

That investment may be helping, but it is too late, and should have happened before the second-wave hit, especially given that the government had ample warning. At this point, Queen’s Park seems to be fighting a five-alarm building fire with a garden hose. What should it be doing?

It already knows this, but the urgent prescription was repeated this week by the group Doctors for Justice in Long-Term Care. The 215 doctors who make up the coalition are calling on the government to hire appropriate levels of staff, set a higher minimum pay standard for front-line workers, establish partnerships between LTC facilities and hospitals, let family caregivers have access and ensure at least 70 per cent of staff at every facility are working full-time.

The government has heard all this, but is showing no signs of responding appropriately. So more political pressure needs to be brought to bear.

On Jan. 14, mayors in York Region vowed to take a leadership role pushing for immediate change. Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti said “I believe a generation has been let down here.”

The York mayors are right and their efforts should be supported by municipal leaders across Ontario, including in Niagara and Hamilton. And the Association of Municipalities of Ontario should lend its voice and heft. What the government is doing so far is not enough and it’s not working. A whole new level of intervention is required, and if that includes calling in the Red Cross and the military, so be it.