Profit Motive and Unaccountability -- Culprits for Deficiencies in Long-Term Care
- Diane Johnston -
 
Long-term care is not available to Canadians on a
universal basis. They are largely left to fend for themselves with
regard to ensuring that their long-term care needs, and the costs
associated with them, are met.
In reference to the glaring deficiencies in
long-term care, in a recent interview on CTV's
Question Period, Sharleen Stewart, the President
of the Services Employees International Union
(SEIU) Healthcare, a union representing over
60,000 frontline workers in Canada,[1] said: "We've
been [tolling] on the alarm bells for decades on
this and just recently over the past couple of
months with the pandemic, constantly we've been
asking, announcing, and reporting what we were
hearing in real time off the front lines that
our members were reporting to us."
 "There has to be
accountability to any money transferred from
anybody's hands, whether it be federal money to
the provinces or provinces to those homes," she
noted.
Stewart also said that Canada must put an end
to privately-owned facilities, "who[se]
priorities are based more on paying out
shareholders rather than making sure that the
proper and adequate care is given."
On June 2, Stewart wrote a letter to Ontario
Premier Doug Ford, regarding his announcement of
pandemic pay for eligible frontline health care
workers, effective for 16 weeks from April 24
until August 13.
In her letter, she points to the fact that
"tens of thousands of frontline health care
workers were wrongfully excluded, which showed
your government's clear lack of understanding of
the critical roles so many are playing during
these unprecedented times."
"Along with over 8,000 of our union members who
have signed our petition demanding the expansion
of pandemic pay," she writes, "I am calling on
you to immediately ensure that pandemic pay is
applied to ALL non-management frontline health
care workers. We are also asking you to make
Pandemic Pay retroactive to the start of this
pandemic, instead of the April 24 date that was
arbitrarily chosen."
Concluded the SEIU Healthcare President, "It is
long overdue that all frontline health care
workers, who are risking their lives each and
every day during this pandemic, are properly
supported and respected."
The pandemic has made it glaringly clear that a
new direction is needed in the care of seniors
and the health care sector generally. In order
for that to happen, the most urgent need is for
a credible public authority.
SIEU continues to hold rallies at Ontario
seniors' care homes, thanking the healthcare
workers. This one, at Westgate Lodge in
Belleville, honours those who have died of
COVID-19.
For such an authority to be credible,
legitimate and accountable, it must have a
direct connection with the working class with
regard to determining the direction of the
economy, as it is the working class that creates
all the value produced in the society. That
value must be placed towards responding to the
needs and well-being of the society in general.[2]
Notes
1. SEIU Healthcare
members include clerical support, developmental
support workers, dietary aides, housekeepers,
lab technicians, maintenance workers,
paramedics, registered nurses, personal support
workers, registered practical nurses and social
workers
2. "The Necessity for a
Credible Public Authority," TML Weekly
Supplement, May 30, 2020.
This article was published in
Number 41 - June 16, 2020
Article Link:
Profit Motive and Unaccountability -- Culprits for Deficiencies in Long-Term Care - Diane Johnston
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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