LTC recommendations are seriously misguided

Re LTC probe repeats calls to hire more staff, boost residents’ care, Oct. 24

The Commission’s recently released letter calling for four hours of care per day in long-term care homes seriously misses the mark, unless it also addresses the underlying reasons for the staffing shortage in long-term care.

The institutional model is one where residents do not want to live and where staff appear not to want to work, and who can blame them? Assembly line care, exposure to infection and possibly death, chronic short staffing that has gone on for years, profit being taken out at the expense of care.

When these facilities recently called on the government of Ontario to bail them out of the staffing shortages, the government correctly responded that finding staff is their responsibility.

Why should even more public dollars be pumped into this system for staffing when this sector has proven that it cannot or will not staff according to existing requirements?

Instead of just focusing on increasing staffing, why not focus on reducing the number of residents and returning them to where they say they want to be: In their own homes. Douglas Cartan, Mallorytown, Ont.

Once again, a commission makes recommendations without an understanding of the systemic issues in long-term care. Ontario’s for-profit, institutionbased long-term-care system is in trouble.

Millions of taxpayer dollars have been wasted in it since its inception. There is no effective financial accountability for the money it gets. No sooner does it get millions from government, than its hand is out for more.

Calling for money for staffing while ignoring the need for comprehensive financial accountability to ensure that public funding is used for its intended purpose is irresponsible.

What is needed is a viable inspection branch, with forensic accounting built in, a prosecution policy for bad operators who repeatedly flaunt the law, and a police presence to bring criminal charges against those operators and individuals who abuse and neglect residents. Patricia Spindel, Ajax