Ontario Health Coalition Recommendations for Immediate Action at Long-Term Care Homes
Memorial established by families of the 50 residents who had died of
COVID-19 as of May 11 at the Camilla Care Community, a long-term care
home in Mississauga. As of May 29, 64 residents have now died.
In light of the commitment by Ontario Premier
Doug Ford for an independent, non-partisan and transparent commission
into long-term care, the Ontario Health Coalition issued an Open Letter
on May 28 setting out specific demands for immediate action that cannot
and should not wait for the commission. At least 100 health
organizations, family councils, health professionals and social
organizations, legal clinics, seniors' and retirees' groups as well as
cultural organizations and others signed on in support of
the Ontario Health Coalition's Open Letter.
The Ontario Health Coalition insists that the
commission must be instructed to receive the opinions and statements of
families, residents, staff and their associations and unions, public
interest groups and advocates and that the entire record of proceedings
must be made available to the public. The Ontario Health Coalition also
insists that "the Minister of Long-Term Care must use her powers to
revoke licences and appoint new management in long-term care homes that
have uncontrolled outbreaks and evidence of negligence and poor
practices."
 The Ontario
Health Coalition open letter also sets out specific demands for
immediate action by the provincial government to ensure long-term care
residents receive humane treatment and care. Among the measures
demanded are:
- chronic understaffing must be addressed
immediately. The problem cannot be left to the long-term care corporate
operators to resolve.
- immediate action must be taken to improve
infection control practices, workplace safety and access to Personal
Protective Equipment. "Reusing surgical masks patient after patient,
resident after resident" is totally unacceptable
- staff who become infected must be supported
financially and given time to self-isolate at home. The Ministry
currently allows health care facilities to require staff who have
tested positive but who are asymptomatic, to continue to report to work!
- action must be taken to ramp up testing and
tracking to the province's full capacity. Public hospital laboratories,
for example, are not currently doing COVID-19 testing and have unused
capacity.
- the province must lift its ban on transferring
COVID-19-infected long-term care residents to hospitals where they can
receive proper medical treatment and care.
The entire thrust of the Ontario Health
Coalition's Open Letter is for the province to immediately act to
institute a minimum standard of care in long-term care facilities.
"This cannot be left to operators to do on their own."
The Ontario Health Coalition says that resources -- both
financial and human -- need to be provided by the province to support
this. The full text of the Open Letter and the list of organizations
that have signed on in support can be found here.
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 19 - May 30, 2020
Article Link:
Ontario Health Coalition Recommendations for Immediate Action at Long-Term Care Homes
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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