Open letter on the crisis in long-term care
Torstar’s co-proprietors call for urgent action
The neglect, underfunding and overcrowding of Ontario’s longterm-care facilities under the watch of numerous governments over many decades has been tragic.
Sadly, the situation has only worsened with the COVID-19 pandemic, which struck residents living in these facilities the hardest, resulting in thousands of needless deaths.
We are asking that you take a few minutes out of your day to help us deliver a clear and direct message to our federal, provincial and municipal political leaders: Enough is enough, immediate measurable action is required to address this crisis and save the lives of our vulnerable seniors and their caregivers.
In recent days the focus on this crisis has intensified and our political leaders have committed to more action, in particular the imminent priority vaccination of long-term-care residents and staff.
Unfortunately, the plans and timelines are unclear and the action is not being taken fast enough to save lives.
We must ensure that meaningful action is taken immediately.
We must also take steps now to focus on several longer-term systemic initiatives to fundamentally change the relationships among government, business and our elders and related health-care staff.
We believe the five actionable items below are needed to save lives and provide the humane, respectful care that our vulnerable seniors and their caregivers deserve:
First, the province of Ontario must immediately deploy rapid COVID tests into long-termcare facilities to test residents and staff and commit to vaccinating all long-term-care residents and staff by Feb. 15, 2021. Provincial and municipal authorities must work collaboratively to ensure all measures are taken to support these immediate vaccinations. Federal authorities should volunteer the deployment of military healthcare professionals as necessary to support this initiative. As part of this commitment, provincial authorities must immediately establish a public tracking system to record and report vaccinations delivered on a facility-by-facility basis.
Second, the province of Ontario must immediately reinstate
the mandatory inspection regime and introduce mandatory public reporting of all longterm-care facilities, focused on infections, medical supply and long-term-care staff availability, and appropriate access to local hospitalization and specialized care. Provincial and municipal inspectors who are currently underutilized, such as health inspectors, should be deployed to assist this program.
Third, both the province of Ontario and the government of Canada must provide $100 million in immediate emergency funds to hire additional fulltime long-term-care staff and raise the wages for all longterm-care workers as the government of Quebec has recently instituted.
Fourth, the province of Ontario must establish an emergency rapid response task force comprised of trained infectioncontrol health-care workers available to act immediately as emergencies are identified.
Fifth, the government of Canada and the province of Ontario must appoint independent federal and provincial ombuds, respectively, with a national regulatory authority attached to Health Canada, to receive and review all complaints and investigations from long-termcare residents, their families and long-term-care staff to oversee strict new long-termcare standards related to ensuring humane care and residents’ rights, staffing and pay levels, building designs and usage of funds.
We believe that Ontarians want immediate action on these above-noted items and we urge our political leaders to take these actions to heart and move with haste to save lives.
We commit to closely tracking the weekly progress of our key elected officials on these requests and to measuring their performance.
We ask that you and your family and friends help by signing this letter or sending your own “call for action” directly to your elected municipal, provincial and federal politicians. Please follow the instructions provided here to ensure your voice is heard on this life-and-death matter.
Together we can make meaningful change that will directly result in saving the lives of our most vulnerable seniors.