LTC system failed teen
Re Teenage virus victim a refugee from Syria, Jan. 25
The death of a teen worker in a longterm-care (LTC) home in south west Ontario gives me pause to consider the continuing tragedy unfolding in nursing homes in this province.
To follow the comment by Federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh that Star reporter Kenyon Wallace quotes, we could focus on more personal protective equipment (PPE), paid sick days and vaccinations, all of which are important.
But, on a systemic level, the cure for this tragedy rests with reforming the model of care. LTC facilities are not safe places to work or live.
Contrast the death totals between nursing homes (3,200 and rising) that house some 78,000 residents and that of small homes and more individualized supported-living situations for some 19,000 people who have a developmental disability operated by nonprofit organizations across the province, and the lesson is clear: This latter group has reported 20 deaths.
The LTC institutional model is inherently problematic and cannot be fixed. Douglas Cartan, Mallorytown, Ont.
The unwillingness by our provincial government to act immediately on recommendations to resolve pay and employment issues related to front-line workers in senior care homes, and the continuing tragic consequences for both staff and residents is a historic failure by an Ontario premier who is supposed to put the care and welfare of all the citizens of the province, especially the most vulnerable, above party ideology. This is yet another example, a most blatant and egregious one, of a business-driven economic mindset at the highest political level harming the daily lives of Ontario citizens.
Mark Finnan, Peterborough, Ont.
Re How other countries approach LTC, Jan. 17
Kudos to Jeremy Nuttall for reporting that Denmark and Taiwan provide homey supportive housing for elders who need care around the clock, while these countries keep death from COVID-19 low!
In Canada, elders are segregated in large, hospital-like institutions called long-term-care facilities.
LTC residents are people with disabilities. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities forbids segregation in institutions. Over the past 30 years, institutions for younger adults with disabilities were replaced with small, supportive housing integrated into communities.
Why shouldn’t elders have the same rights as younger adults with disabilities?
Instead of funding companies to build large institutions for elders, governments should invest our taxes in expanded home care and small, non-profit, community-based, supportive housing. Margaret Oldfield, PhD, disability studies, Toronto
Another advisory about staying home and not travelling. Over the holidays, several political figures ignored the same request and trivialized the sacrifice made by many who decided to forgo family gatherings and stay home. Front-line workers were on the job. Perhaps the ones that ignored the rules could reflect on that and also recall how much they spent.
An apology accompanied by a large donation to the food bank might help to improve their tarnished image.
Audrey Jaques, Toronto
Re 100 LTC residents could be saved, panel
says, Jan. 22
Dr. Nathan Stall, a geriatrician at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Toronto, is quoted as
saying, “I cannot comprehend why they would not move heaven and earth to vaccinate every single long-term-care resident as soon as possible” about the province’s failures in rapidly ensuring all people in long-term care (LTC) are vaccinated, despite there being the capacity to have done so.
I would suggest there is no reason to be shocked. Despite repeated claims from the premier and his government since the beginning of the pandemic about protecting our vulnerable citizens in LTC homes, the evidence shows people have been suffering and dying in these settings to a highly disproportionate degree.
This cannot be solely attributed to the age of the residents, as people of similar age and need who live in alternative settings have been spared the carnage now occurring in LTC.
University of Toronto bioethicist Kerry Bowman has asserted that the province’s vaccination strategy for this population has been “ethically flawed.”
With massive numbers of vulnerable people living in LTC and additional thousands waiting for placement in them, and taking up valuable space in Ontario’s hospitals, we must ask, “Is there any incentive to ensure the residents of these settings are protected from an infection?”
There is a strategy that is pervasive in many health-care settings wherein an “opportunistic infection” is left untreated and allowed to bring about the death of an individual whose continued survival is deemed by some to be of low quality of life.
Is there an incentive to ensure there is meaningful effort to ensure the survival of the elderly in long-term care?
Linda Till, Sharon, Ont.
Re Pfizer cuts promised vaccine supply for
Canada, Jan. 16
Kudos to Branko Gasperlin of Toronto, for suggesting (letter, Jan. 23) that Federal Procurement Minister Anita Anand would have been wise to take up the option of 16 million doses of the
Moderna vaccine in view of the fact that Pfizer will cut promised vaccine delivery due to its Belgium factory renovation.
As this renovation may take longer than Pfizer indicates, one must wonder why we are not immediately taking advantage of this option, instead of buying yet more Pfizer product.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau indicates that the number of pre-ordered vaccines are adequate “to innoculate 38 million people three times over.”
While this is heart warming, it means little unless we actually receive and administer the vaccines in a timely fashion.
Ontario’s premier points out that “every day, we’re giving out less vaccine than we have the capacity to administer is a day we lose.” As infections steadily rise and more people succumb to COVID-19 and its variants, I’m afraid we may have already lost.
Jane Crotin, Toronto
Re Premier, bring ‘firecracker’ attitude to sick day policy, Opinion, Jan. 25
Doug Ford’s ongoing stubborn refusal to legislate paid sick leave for all Ontario workers in the face of continuing calls for it by countless people from all walks of life, but especially from medical experts and labour/employment advocates, borders on wilful neglect and dereliction of duty.
Everyone, except the provincial government and its corporate cronies, agrees that the federal Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit is not sufficient, on its own and needs to be supplemented with provincially legislated paid sick leave.
Diana Hooper, Willowdale, Ont.
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