Protect nursing homes from second wave
It was disappointing but not surprising to learn the second wave of COVID-19 started washing over Ontario late last month.
That’s what scientists and public health officials had long told us to brace for, even if it’s something we’d all dreaded. But what was far more disappointing and, in addition very much unexpected, was Friday’s alarming news that coronavirus cases were again surging in the very places we’d hoped they’d be eradicated: in Ontario’s nursing homes.
In the past month, and despite Premier Doug Ford’s assurances his government was finally getting everything under control, the number of long-term-care facilities declaring an outbreak has tripled — from 19 in mid-September to 57 as of last week. Translated into human lives, those numbers mean 154 residents and 165 staff members who were previously healthy are now fighting active infections. As we slog through the eighth month of the pandemic, this is unacceptable. Who knows where this trend will take Ontario’s nursing homes, where 1,954 residents and eight staff members have already died of COVID-19.
Not only should Ford and Health Minister Christine Elliott have prevented the latest spike in outbreaks from happening, they should do everything possible to keep the situation from deteriorating further. And if they’re looking for guidance, they should listen to Cathy Fooks, who they appointed as Ontario’s patient ombudsman in July.
Even though Fooks and her office are still formally investigating the nursing home system, she found it necessary last week to issue a special report that calls on the government to make major changes immediately. Organizational foul-ups, communications breakdowns and a continuing lack of proper staffing levels were endemic to the system, Fooks concluded.
Among the horror stories she looked into was the nursing home that was “forcing” employees who had tested positive for COVID-19 to report to work anyway, and in an institution still housing four residents to a single room. Another home was rife with errors made in documenting nursing home residents with the illness. As a result, some workers “unknowingly” provided care to them and others — without wearing personal protective equipment.
In yet another home, so many staff members were off sick or absent because of fears for their own health that the remaining staff were exhausted by working up to 18-hour shifts. Then, there was the woman who called in May to report her mother-inlaw had been left in bed since mid-March because the nursing home was too short-staffed to transfer her to a wheelchair. If lapses such as these are happening in even a few of Ontario’s 630 nursing homes, no wonder the virus is spreading in them. Ontario’s vulnerable elderly residents simply deserve better.
It’s time for Premier Ford to live up to his previous, and unkept, pledge to put an “iron ring” of protection around these facilities. Yes, his government has made many welcome changes and recently earmarked $500 million to improve staffing and implement other pandemic measures in nursing homes. Despite this, the ombudsman’s report makes a passionate argument that more must be done, including enhanced protection for staff whistleblowers, overhauling the visitation system and — finally — improving communications.
While Ford’s highly personal, down-to-earth response to the pandemic has boosted his popularity, he has recently come under fire for the unresolved problems that plague COVID-19 testing, as well as the often confusing official messages sent out to the public. For his sake, but more importantly for the sake of Ontario’s 70,000 nursing home residents, he must fix long-term care.