Ontario Health Coalition Briefing on Long-Term Care Outbreaks, Funding and Staffing
On October 6, two days before the Ontario Day of
Action for Long-Term
Care, Natalie Mehra, Executive Director of the
Ontario Health
Coalition, gave a briefing on the current state
of affairs in the
Ontario long-term care (LTC) system and
discussed government
announcements in the past week around funding
and staffing. Below
are excerpts from her presentation.
***
 We
are in a second wave, it appears, and things are
getting more serious
daily. There are now about 50 outbreaks in LTC
homes across the
province. Some are small -- one or two people
-- but some are quite
large, particularly in Ottawa, where about a
third of the province's
outbreaks are happening. Extendicare West End
Villa is the worst.
More than 100 people, staff and residents, have
been infected and I am
sorry to report that I believe 19 have died.
There are also outbreaks
at five other homes in Ottawa and large
outbreaks in Toronto as well.
What we have not seen is any fundamental change
in the response to
outbreaks in homes [...] Extendicare West End
Villa provides alarming
evidence that the standards set by the Ontario
government for homes
have not changed since last spring. Extendicare
reported on September
11 that there was enough PPE (personal
protective equipment)
in the home. The Ministry of Long-Term Care
spokesperson said they
believe that there was enough staff in the home.
The feeling of family
members and staff was completely the opposite.
Lack of Safety Standards Throughout the System
Staff reported anonymously to the CBC (because
they could be fired
for speaking out) that frontline staff treating
COVID positive
residents did not have access to N-95 masks in Extendicare West End Villa. More than two
dozen staff had contracted COVID-19 by that
time.
 Families
reported loved ones being in a room shared with
residents showing
COVID-19 symptoms. It wasn't until days later
that the person was
tested. It was still another 24 hours before
that COVID-19 positive
resident was moved to isolation. In the meantime
three people were
sharing one bathroom with the COVID-19 positive
resident.
Another family described their loved one being COVID
positive, in a room
with the door open, with other residents walking
in and out without
proper isolation and protection.
It was not until two weeks ago that Ottawa's
Medical Officer of
Health ordered The Ottawa Hospital to take over
the management of the
home [as well as Extendicare Laurier -- WF ed.
note] and send in
a rapid response unit to help. That was well
after over 90 residents
and staff had contracted COVID 19. As of the
most recent reports that
home is still waiting for 270 test results.
It was expected that province-wide standards
would be in place with
a threshold set -- one or two people infected --
which would trigger
specific measures being snapped into place:
additional staffing;
infected residents moved to where they can
receive safe care in a
hospital or field hospital [...] What is clear
from Ottawa is that
there is no
systemic approach.
Staffing Shortage
Since summer nothing has been done to improve
staffing levels in LTC
homes across Ontario [...] Many homes report a
worse staffing situation
at the end of the first wave than they had at
the beginning.
In July we did a survey of staff at LTC homes
to determine if
there were more or fewer staff now than at the
start of the pandemic.
The majority said there were fewer. More than 93
per cent said they
were working short-staffed every day. It was
better in the public and
not-for-profit homes but across the board,
staffing is still inadequate
in LTC
homes.
 Even
with the announcements of government funding in
the last few weeks, no
measures have been taken to get the thousands of
staff that are needed
into the homes to get care up to safe levels. In
the last week and a
half the government announced a bump up in
funding for homes which is
significant -- about $403 million to offset
COVID-19 specific costs. That amounts to about
$44 million for all the
626 LTC homes in Ontario each month [of which
58 per cent are privately owned, 24 per cent
non-profit/charitable, and 16 per cent are
municipal -- WF ed. note]. That is
significant. However the money from the summer
has not flowed yet. June funding was received in
September. Homes are
still waiting for July and August money. That
may help explain why we didn't see staffing
improvements in June and July.
Also, the number of staff the government has
announced funding for
is far too few. For health care, in total, they
announced 3,700 new
staff. But when we look more closely, these are
not fully funded. They
announced $18 million for a nursing graduate
guarantee program that is
supposed to provide 600 nurses focused on
long-term care and
in hospitals. That amounts to $30,000 per nurse.
That does not actually
translate into 600 new nurses. It may top up
some part-time nurses to
full-time, but it is not enough to provide 600
new nurses. They
announced up to $8 million for 800 nurses in
areas of need across the
province. That amounts to $10,000 per nurse.
Again $10,000 does not
pay a full-time nurse. These announcements have
been a lot of PR
without really a lot of substance.
We have a very serious problem and we are
extremely concerned as a
Health Coalition. We have not seen measures that
will stabilize the
workforce and we are now into a second wave. LTC
homes have less
resilience to deal with an outbreak when it
happens than in the first
wave. Staff have worked a lot of overtime and
made enormous
sacrifices and we will see more leave the sector
in this second wave.
Unless we see government action now -- it really
needed to happen
months ago -- we are very concerned for people
living and working in
long-term care.
This article was published in
Number 69 - October 13, 2020
Article Link:
Ontario Health Coalition Briefing on Long-Term Care Outbreaks, Funding and Staffing
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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