Ford mum on ‘code red’ nursing homes
ROB FERGUSON
Premier Doug Ford says he’s keeping secret the list of “code red” nursing homes struggling most with COVID-19, leaving worried families in the dark and standing in the way of volunteers who might step up to help, critics charge.
Revealing the names of those nursing homes — 19 by the government’s latest admission — would tip them off that they could face unexpected inspections, Ford said Wednesday as the death toll in long-term care rose by nine to 1,661.
More than1,800 residents and staff remain sick with the highly contagious virus that has infected more than 30,000 Ontarians and killed almost 2,400.
“We’re doing surprise visits to all the long-term-care homes,” said Ford, who has previously pledged “you deserve to know what I know” in terms of COVID-19 data.
“It is really important to be able to do those surprise audits or inspections to make sure that we can understand what the state of affairs actually is in a long-term-care home,” Health Minister Christine Elliott added.
But opposition parties said Ford’s argument doesn’t hold water, whether the homes are “code red” or have improved to “code yellow” with concerns remaining about their ability to properly care for residents who are not allowed visitors because they may bring in the novel coronavirus.
“Those homes know darn well they’re in the red category, they know darn well they’re in the yellow category,” NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said.
“Unfortunately the only people who don’t know are the people who have loved ones living in long-term care and that’s not right,” she said.
The chief executive officer of the Ontario Long-Term Care Association, which represents a wide range of companies in the industry, said she agrees with making names public because it could help bring more resources from the surrounding community, such as volunteer doctors, nurses, kitchen staff or supplies.
“I’m a big fan of transparency,” said Donna Duncan. “If you have a sense a home is in trouble, shouldn’t we be doing as much as possible collectively to get them back on track?”
The secrecy from the Progressive Conservative government “makes no sense” in the wake of Ford’s April 2 pledge to share information, Green Leader Mike Schreiner told reporters.
“Given the government’s terrible record on inspections, at this point, the public has a right to know,” he added, referring to just nine resident quality inspections conducted at all 626 Ontario nursing homes last year. Long-Term Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton said there have been almost 3,000 other inspections since the PCs took power two years ago and told a news conference the list of “code-red” homes is “fluid.”
Families have repeatedly complained of poor communication with dozens of overwhelmed nursing homes amid avisitor ban that makes it easier to hide horrific conditions like the ones revealed last week in a Canadian Armed Forces report.
Based on five hard-hit nursing homes where military medical teams were deployed at Ford’s request, the scathing report found residents were forcefully fed to the point of choking or left in bed for days, crying for help in soiled diapers because of a staff shortages.
That was a thinly veiled reference to former Progressive Conservative political staff who now work as lobbyists on behalf of for-profit nursing home corporations, and to former PC premier Mike Harris, who is chair of Chartwell Retirement Residences.
“I don’t have friends that run long-term-care homes,” the premier shot back.
He has promised an “independent commission” will begin in July. Ontario Ombudsman Paul Dube has launched a full investigation of his own accord, while the Ministry of Health’s patient ombudsman’s office said it will looking into specific impacts of COVID-19 on nursing-home residents and staff.
The number of nursing-home residents with active cases of
Using its emergency powers, Ontario has now authorized temporary hospital takeovers of eight nursing homes that were unable to cope with COVID-19.
Ministry of Health statistics released Wednesday showed the number of nursing homes with outbreaks of COVID-19 continued to fall, declining to 94 from 105 on Tuesday. Horwath accused Ford of keeping the “code-red” list secret because he’s “protecting friends” in the nursing-home industry.
COVID-19 has fallen below 1,000 for the first time in weeks, to 986, along with 866 staff members who are still fighting the virus.
The decline has been steady for 14 days, Fullerton said, adding, “This is good news.”
Seven nursing home staff have died from COVID-19.
The province has now reached 30,807 cases of the novel coronavirus since January, with another 347 confirmed and probable infections as of 5 p.m. Wednesday according to a Star compilation of data from public health units in the previous 24 hours. An increase of 17 deaths raised the number of fatalities to 2,373.
The Ministry of Health said the number of people in hospital for COVID-19 fell by10 to 791 patients, with 127 in intensive care – an increase of two from the previous day. There were 92 ICU patients on ventilators, an increase of five.
Labs across the province processed 17,537 swabs Tuesday as more Ontarians went to assessment centres and pop-up locations to get tested. That is closer to the capacity of processing just over 20,000 tests daily.
The Ministry of Health said it considers 22,811 cases of COVID-19 resolved.
“It is really important to be able to do those surprise audits or inspections to make sure that we can understand what the state of affairs actually is.”
CHRISTINE ELLIOTT HEALTH MINISTER