Immediate action needed to save long-term care

Let’s put this plainly: In its effort to protect vulnerable Ontarians in long-term-care facilities from COVID-19, the government is failing. Miserably.

“We are putting an iron ring” around LTC homes, pledged Premier Doug Ford. Whether due to incompetence, impotence or too-little-too-late measures, the reality is the exact opposite of that.

As of Jan. 11, just under 3,000 residents have died along with 10 staff. The total number of cases since mid-January last year is 12,377, with 4,802 staff cases. Two hundred and fifty-two homes have outbreaks, an increase of seven over the previous day. All this, as health experts warn the next several weeks are likely to be the worst yet.

There will be time for a post mortem on what the government did and did not do. But that should not be the focus right now. Instead, we need measures right away, as in yesterday, that will begin to reduce the numbers in LTC.

On Saturday, Torstar proprietors Jordan Bitove and Paul Rivett published a letter to readers of all our publications. It calls for specific, immediate steps that will make a difference. Their calls to action are not unique, they are echoed by countless public health officials and experts. As the letter said: “Enough is enough, immediate measurable action is required to save the lives of our vulnerable seniors and their caregivers.”

Here are some of the things the letter called for. Ontario must deploy rapid COVID testing into long-term-care facilities to test residents and staff, and it must commit to vaccinating all LTC residents — not just in hot zones — by Feb. 15. If necessary, federal authorities should volunteer the military to help, and the province must establish a vaccine tracking system to trace rollout facility-by-facility.

Ontario must restore mandatory inspections and transparent public reporting on inspection results.

Ottawa and Ontario must each provide $100 million in emergency funds to hire adequate staff, provide training and raise LTC wages to match what Quebec has done. Also, Ontario must strike an emergency rapid response task force to act quickly as emergencies are identified.

Together, the federal and provincial governments must appoint federal and provincial ombuds and establish a Health Canada regulatory authority to receive and review all LTC complaints.

You can lend your support to these calls to action by going to thestar.com/ long-term-care/ ltc-crisis.html, filling out and sending the open letter to your local elected representatives. If enough of us bear down on our governments, they are more likely to act quickly and decisively, and lives can be saved.

There is more. Recently, the government rejected a request for more time for its own hand-picked commission looking into why the outbreaks are so severe and what can be done to stop them and prepare for the future. The Long-Term Care COVID-19 Commission has made progress and released two interim reports to guide the government. It sought an extension so it could finish its job, but was turned down by Long-Term Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton.

Why? Why on earth would the government say no to the commission it appointed? And why has the commission’s requests for documentation been stonewalled by the government?

It makes no sense. This isn’t some fiercely partisan group out to expose the government. It’s the very same group Ford turned to as an alternative to a public inquiry, which it also rejected. And, by the way, it has yet to act on most of the interim recommendations made by the commission. Does this sound like a government really wants to fix our long-term-care system?