LTC probe repeats calls to hire more staff, boost residents’ care
Opposition, advocacy groups putting pressure on Ford government
Ontario’s commission into the deadly and devastating impact of COVID-19 in nursing homes is backing previous calls for four hours of daily care per resident and more full-time staff.
They are among several interim recommendations released Friday, increasing the pressure on Premier Doug Ford’s government from opposition parties and advocacy groups to take swift action.
“The second wave is upon us,” chief commissioner Frank Marrocco wrote to Long-Term Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton.
Acknowledging a government report last July called for “urgent” hiring to ease long-standing staff shortages that plagued nursing homes before COVID-19 hit, Marrocco stated bluntly that “further ‘study’ of the study is not necessary.”
“What is required is the study’s timely implementation.”
Despite that push, Fullerton released a statement saying “we are carefully reviewing each of the recommendations.” Her office has said it will release a staffing strategy this year.
Ford did not commit to the four hours of daily care and said “we are working day in and day out” to improve conditions in nursing homes.
Cases in long-term care have been steadily rising and there dozens of outbreaks in nursing homes, several of them serious. Another 37 residents and 11 staff have tested positive in the last day, with three deaths.
Other recommendations include improved infection prevention and control with a dedicated staffer in charge, more inspections of those measures, early interventions by hospitals in nursing homes facing outbreaks of COVID-19 and contingency plans to move infected residents to hospitals or other locations to better control the spread of the virus, particularly in older long-term-care facilities.
“We have heard that longterm-care homes were forgotten in the initial provincial plans to control the spread of COVID-19 until residents started dying,” the commissioners wrote in one of their most pointed comments after hearing submissions from more than 200 people and groups.
That finding is “sickening,” said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, who released her new plan for long-term care two weeks ago. “This government needs to stop pretending like this crisis is something they can sweep under the rug.”
Health Minister Christine Elliott said several of the recommendations are already being implemented, but opposition parties zeroed in on the lack of a commitment to four hours of daily care.
The New Democrats and others have long been pushing the government to boost daily care for residents to four hours, from an average of 2.75 hour now, which would require more staff.
“The Ford government is out of excuses,” said Green Leader Mike Schreiner, noting it would cost about $1.6 billion a year to implement the four-hour-care standard.
“There is no time to hesitate,” added Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca. More than 1,900 nursing home residents have died from COVID-19 to date and about 6,500 have been infected, with the virus spreading faster in older homes where it is harder to isolate sick residents.
Eight nursing-home workers — most of them personal support workers (PSWs) who help residents get groomed, showered, toileted and dressed — have died and more than 2,700 infected.
Those statistics have made it difficult to recruit new staff, which the government is trying to remedy with temporary $3 hourly raises for nursing home PSWs as part of a plan announced recently to pour $540 million into long-term-care to hire more staff and get ready for a second wave with renovations to improve ventilation and better infection prevention.
Critics said that plan should have been unveiled months ago to give more time before cases started to rise sharply in September, forcing Toronto, Peel, York and Ottawa into modified Stage 2 restrictions.
Several groups involved in long-term care also urged Ford to implement the commission’s interim recommendations immediately.
“You have the model … go for it and be the champion,” said Doris Grinspun, chief executive of the Registered Nurses’ Associatt Ford — ion of Ontario, urged using the same word “champion” the premier often uses to complement his cabinet ministers. Grinspun has repeatedly called for one nurse practitioner for every 120 nursing home residents and a dedicated infection control nurse in every home.
The Ontario Long-Term Care Association, representing about 70 per cent of the province’s nursing homes, said nursing home staffing is “in crisis.”
“Ensuring that the fundamentals such as timely access to personal protective equipment, rapid testing, hospital partnerships and dedicated infection prevention and control expertise are available in our homes is fundamental to protecting our residents, staff and family,” said executive director Donna Duncan.
“It is also key to our ability to recruit and retain the new workforce we desperately need.” The recommendations are “desperately needed to protect residents and battle this pandemic,” said chief executive Lisa Levin of AdvantAge Ontario, which advocates for better seniors’ care.
The commission’s final report is due in April.
“We have heard that long-term-care homes were forgotten in the initial provincial plans to control the spread of COVID-19 until residents started dying.” PROVINCIAL COMMISSION’S INTERIM REPORT