The Need to Fix Long-Term
Care
Workers Demand Public Inquiry into Northwood Deaths
At the end of June, the Nova Scotia government
announced
it is conducting a review of the COVID-19 death toll at the Northwood
Manor long-term care facility for seniors in Halifax.
Northwood Manor is a huge facility, with close to
600
residents and 400 workers caring for them, where 53 residents died this
spring of COVID-19. Hundreds of residents and workers were also
infected. At the end of April the government of Nova Scotia issued a
ministerial order redeploying members of the Nova Scotia Government and
General
Employees Union (NSGEU) to Northwood Manor. NSGEU
denounced the use of the ministerial order to force redeployment, a
violation of the collective agreement according to which redeployment
to another employer must be done on a voluntary basis. The union
reported that the NSGEU members who went to Northwood said
that the situation there was like a war zone. It was marked, among
other things, by a lack of infection control measures to protect
vulnerable seniors and frontline workers, and a lack of appropriate
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
 The
government has announced that it is not going to hold a public inquiry
on the death toll and the whole situation in long-term care facilities
in the province, but has ordered a review to be done by a
Quality-Improvement Committee comprised of two appointed members. This
committee is supposed to deliver recommendations to the
Minister by the end of September after consulting with staff and
physicians, administrators, families and others.
There is also going to
be an internal government review of broader infection prevention and
control within the long-term care sector. The activity of the
Quality-Improvement Committee is covered by the Quality-Improvement
Information Protection Act which gives the Minister the
authority to limit what information from the review is released via the
Freedom of Information and Protection and Privacy Act. This
means that the province will publicly release only the recommendations
that come out of the panel's investigation, not the details of the
investigation
itself. In order to justify its refusal to hold a public inquiry and to
instead use the process approved by the Quality-Improvement
Information Protection Act,
the government of Nova Scotia gave the spurious argument that it has
chosen the best approach to get the investigators to work as soon as
possible so that the recommendations can be
made public as quickly as possible.
Workers reject this argument. They see it as a way
to
prevent the workers, the patients and their families, and Nova Scotians
at large from speaking out and being heard publicly so that their input
is there and their solutions are also made public.
Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union
"NSGEU writes in its press release dated July 2:
"Government should have initiated a public
inquiry
immediately, rather than waiting until the first wave had concluded. We
know that a variety of factors, such as double-bunking and inadequate
staffing ratios, contributed to the spread of COVID-19 at Northwood
Manor. Government needs to take action now to address these known and
acknowledged issues.
"'Fifty-three people died at this facility, and
their
families deserve to know what really happened,' said Jason MacLean,
President of the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union
(NSGEU/NUPGE).
"'They deserve to know how staffing issues and
inadequate infection control made a bad situation worse. These families
and all Nova Scotians deserve to know the answer to a very important
question: Was this avoidable? We need to know what could have been done
to prevent these deaths, so we can ensure the staff and residents at
all
long-term care facilities are better protected in the event of a second
wave.'
"The situation calls for a comprehensive public
inquiry
that includes an opportunity for everyone -- residents, family members,
staff and unions -- to provide their first-hand accounts of what
happened, and what they think could be done better."
Nova Scotia Federation of Labour
The Nova Scotia Federation of Labour is also
demanding a
full, transparent public inquiry into long-term care. President Danny
Cavanagh wrote a letter to Health and Wellness Minister Randy Delorey
on July 6, which states, in part;
"[...] the method announced recently by the
Liberal
government -- a review struck under the Quality-improvement Information
Protection Act -- allows the review to happen behind closed doors.
"All those involved -- including Northwood staff
and
management, government and Nova Scotia Health Authority officials,
family members and others -- must feel free to speak openly, without
fear of legal repercussions, and all findings must be released to the
public.
"Issues in long-term care didn't start in March --
the
system was broken long before the Pandemic. We now see that the
COVID-19 crisis has drawn attention to inconsistent regulations, low
standards of care, and poor working conditions in long-term care
facilities. Now is the time to take the opportunity to learn from what
went wrong and
build a clear plan to fix the system.
"Any review of long-term care must involve the
unions
who are on the front line every day and the review must be of the
entire system, including Northwood. Before the Pandemic, any frontline
worker would have told you that our long-term care homes have been in
crisis for years. In fact, many unions commissioned reports to
government
about the crisis.
"Workers will tell you that the arrival of
COVID-19 has
added enormous stress to a system that was already broken. Any report
cannot be about blame but must focus on making long-term care a better
system of care. A review must also look at the funding provided to the
system over the last 20 years. Should the system fall under the Canada
Health Act and [be] built on a minimum of national
standards?
"The report must be made public to avoid the
government
not sharing information on its findings. A second wave of COVID-19 is
around the corner and we know that a variety of factors, such as
double-bunking and inadequate staffing ratios, contributed to the
spread of COVID-19 at Northwood Manor. Government needs to take action
now
to address these known and acknowledged issues."
Nova Scotia Health Coalition
The Nova Scotia Health Coalition is calling for
the
Minister of Health and Wellness to commit to releasing the full report
of the Quality-Improvement Committee to the public and is also calling
for a full independent inquiry into the long-term care system. In its
press release dated July 2, it states:
"The committee, announced today and due to finish
its
review in September, will report directly to the Minister Delorey, who
will then decide how much information will be released to the public.
Since the two person committee will presumably be investigating the
role of the Minister and other elected officials in pandemic planning,
this
creates an inherent conflict of interest.
"'53 people died at Northwood and the public
deserves
to know the uncensored truth about what happened. Lives are at stake,'
said Chris Parsons, Provincial Coordinator for the Nova Scotia Health
Coalition and a former frontline worker at Northwood Manor. 'It should
not be up to the Minister or the Premier's office to determine what the
public can and cannot know about this tragedy.'
"'The terms of reference focus too heavily on the
actions of staff and leadership at Northwood. Given the imminent second
wave of COVID-19 and the broader failings of our long-term care system
that the disease has revealed, it's clear that we need a review of the
system as a whole, to find out what worked and what did not work
throughout the province. These problems did not start in March,'
Parsons added.
"While quick answers are needed to ensure mistakes
are
not repeated, the Coalition also is calling for a full and independent
public inquiry under the Public Inquiries Act. Such
an inquiry
would allow for full independence from the Minister and provide the
necessary investigative resources and legal powers needed to understand
the
tragedy at Northwood and the broader failures of Nova Scotia's
long-term care system."
This article was published in
Number 48 - July 9, 2020
Article Link:
The Need to Fix Long-Term
Care: Workers Demand Public Inquiry into Northwood Deaths
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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