MPP praises local long-termcare sites
Unfair to blame workers for COVID-19 deaths, Fairhaven director says
Local long-term-care facilities deserve credit for coping “successfully” with COVID-19 outbreaks so far in the pandemic, said Peterborough-Kawartha MPP Dave Smith.
“I think our long-term-care facilities have done an excellent job,” said Smith in an interview this week.
Not every Ontario nursing home has fared well. This week, a new report from the military, which is helping battle COVID-19 in five long-term-care facilities in the Greater Toronto Area that had many deaths, described deplorable living conditions.
The report found people left in filth for weeks, for example, patients with brutal pressure sores and seniors pleading for help for hours to no avail.
The Ontario government has since taken over the management of those five facilities, which are privately owned.
But Smith praised local facilities this week, saying they had a lot of factors in their favour.
For one thing, he said local long-term-care facilities and retirement homes are “built to modern standards” — meaning no ward rooms, where up to four people live together and may have increased chance of exposure to the virus, which was the case in the deadly outbreak at the 65-bed Pinecrest Nursing Home in Bobcaygeon.
Smith also said local longterm-care facilities had their isolation plans in place before COVID-19 began circulating much in the community, which helped.
He had particular praise for Fairhaven long-term-care home, a municipally owned home. He gave executive director Lionel Towns credit for having isolation protocols in place early in March, before the Ontario government issued any emergency orders.
This week, Towns wrote to The Examiner that Fairhaven is getting about $100,000 from a provincial fund of $50 million for infection control and additional supplies.
That money helps, he said, and non-management workers are also getting a $4-per-hour wage increase for 16 weeks from the provincial government.
As for the appalling conditions in the five long-term-care homes that were singled out in the military report, Towns said it’s unfair to blame either provincial inspectors of the homes or all the staff there.
Provincial inspectors sometimes write lengthy reports on long-term-care homes, Towns said.
“I’ve seen some reports that are 100 pages long,” he wrote in his email, adding that it’s “illinformed” to say neglectful inspectors may have led to the deplorable conditions.
It’s also unfair to judge the staff in those five homes, he wrote.
“While it is clear that some seriously improper actions occurred, there are also a large number of PSWs and nurses that, despite overwhelming conditions, stayed to care for residents when other staff were leaving and not going back.”