Union blasts health ministry over nursing home issues

LONDON — Residents in Ontario nursing homes will have their basic needs neglected until the Ontario health ministry requires operators to double staffing hours, the union that represents that staff said Thursday in London.

With more and more patients needing intense care to help with medical and psychological maladies, the ministry has done nothing to mandate for their care, and each resident is only getting on average two hours of handson care a day, said Kelly O’Sullivan of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario.

The ministry also exaggerates the care being provided by counting time spent by staff filling out paperwork and even on paid vacation.

Her accusations come on the heels of an announcement by the health ministry to more than double the number of inspections from 80 to 180 after QMI Agency showed most homes had been without a single annual inspection. Those additions cost $12 million but the changes pushed by CUPE would cost at least $500 million,

Since 1992, the complexity of care needs for Ontario residents in long-term care has increased significantly. The majority of residents are 85 years of age and older and 73% of them have some form of Alzheimer’s or dementia, she said. Southwestern Ontario has one of the highest seniors populations province-wide and will see about a 151% increase in older people with dementia over the next 25 years, O'Sullivan said.