Senior care homes, the private sector ripoff, death, working and living conditions,

The Ontario NDP is demanding a public inquiry into the long-term care crisis in the province. 

In an interview on CBC's Power and Politics Ontario NDP Leader Andrew Horwath and Mark Zigler, who was the lead lawyer in the Wettlaufer Long-Term Care, discussed the crisis. Horwath noted that  "More than 1,200 long-term care residents in Ontario have died from COVID-19 out of a total of 1700 deaths in the province, and that there are outbreaks in more than 200 facilities across the province." Here is the youtube video of the interview(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaYvdPMEcuw)

Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath. (File). 

TORONTO, Ont. - With COVID-19 outbreaks in more than 200 long-term care homes across the province and more than 1,200 deaths, the official opposition is calling for answers. During a special sitting of the Ontario Legislature on Tuesday, NDP leader Andrea Horwath asked if the government will launch a full public inquiry into the situation in long-term care, both during the COVID-19 pandemic and decades before.

“The system is definitely broken,” Horwath said at Queen’s Park. “Will he (Premier Doug Ford) put partisanship aside and commit to a full independent public inquiry so we can learn what went wrong and how to fix this deeply broken system.”

Ford said there is going to be a review of the system that he says has been broken for decades and it will be up to the entire Legislature to fix it, but he did not commit to a public inquiry....

“Families with loved ones in long-term care are demanding answers and deserve a full public inquiry that will give them those answers,” Horwath said. ...

Opposition members also raised concerns regarding access to proper personal protective equipment for front-line workers in long-term care facilities. ...

“On Friday the premier insisted that PPE was available to frontline staff and personal support workers, but even as he was saying that, there were government plans to water down access to PPE,” Horwath said. “Will the premier make public the exact type and amount of supplies of PPE that are available.”

The NDP referred to a memo issued by the Ministry of Children and Community Services date May 8.

The memo reads: “For basic prevention, staff should wear cloth (non-medical) masks at all congregate care sites regardless of infection status. All suspect (symptomatic) and confirmed cases should be isolated in a single room and enhanced precautions must be deployed. All staff should use Droplet and Contact Precautions if they come within two metres of a suspected or confirmed case, this means enhanced PPE must be worn (surgical mask, eye protection, gown, gloves).”

A previous memo dated April 27 called for staff to wear masks in all congregate care sites regardless of infection status, but did not state non-medical.

https://www.tbnewswatch.com/local-news/ontario-ndp-pushing-for-public-in...

Below are some excerpts from the Canadian Labour Congress report on the disaster that has resulted in 80% of deaths due to Covid-19 occurring in long-term care homes in Canada, the highest percentage by far for any of 14 countries for which data is available. Major reforms are needed both for this pandemic and for future ones because history tells us this will not be the last and modern trans-national travel and climate change are speeding up the rate at which diseases are spreading around the globe. 

Starving our health care system of resources has undermined the capacity of the system to provide services Canadians need, including hospital, primary, home, community, mental health, dental, vision, and long-term care. The staggering loss of life in long-term care homes due to COVID-19 is the result of problems that long preceded, but have been alarmingly exacerbated by, the current crisis.

Labour advocates and allies have been sounding the alarm on the systematic dismantling of the public health care system, and the ever-increasing privatization of health care services for years. For-profit care comes at the expense of quality and cost, with evidence that private facilities have seriously underperformed compared to publicly owned and operated ones. 

The exclusion of long-term care from the Canada Health Act has allowed for the proliferation of private for-profit care in our country.   ...

The demand for long-term care spaces already exceeds current capacity, and will only grow with the aging population. There are more seniors, 65 years and over, than there are children 14 years and under. In 2018, seniors 65 years and over accounted for 17 per cent of all Canadians, by 2068 they will account for between 21 per cent and 30 per cent of the population. ...

Governments have commissioned reports on how to fix these facilities. The three issues often identified were:

the amount of care received; the quality of care; and the transparency of communicating information to the resident’s family. ...

The privatization of long-term care has resulted in a major increase in precarious jobs. The expansive growth of the private long-term care industry has lead to a further devaluing of care work, and driven down workers’ wages, in order to boost corporate and shareholder profits. The pandemic hit Canada at a time when health care positions had been systematically cut back and made increasingly precarious. ...

Unions, experts and advocates sounded the alarm about the lack of PPE for workers at long-term care homes, but these warnings went unheeded. ...

Due to chronic underfunding, the workload of all workers in long-term care homes is unimaginably heavy. Understaffing of long-term care homes is unsustainable for workers as well as for residents. This has an impact on the amount and quality of care for residents and means health care workers are more at risk of injuries. For employers at long-term care homes, understaffing lowers operational costs. The lower the staff-to-resident ratio the lower the costs. 

 

Research done by the United States Centers for Medicare and Medicaid almost two decades ago determined that 4.1 hours of care per resident per day was the minimum required, any less would result in issues like weight loss or pressure ulcers.26 The
4.1 hours of care per resident per day is for direct caring provisions to the resident and excludes non-nursing supports such as dietary, laundry and housekeeping. ... Currently, few provincial and territorial jurisdictions require minimum staffing levels and none meet the minimum 4.1 hours standard of care for a resident per day. ...

Many long-term care residents show aggressive behaviours that are the result of a form of dementia or other cognitive impairment. This is a reality of the workplace. According to a poll of frontline, long-term care staff about their experiences with workplace violence:  90 per cent of care aides and RPNs have experienced physical violence; and  70 per cent of racialized, Indigenous and minority staff experience related harassment. ...

The expansive growth of the private long-term care industry has led to a further increase employment precarity, devaluation of care work, and has driven down wages to boost corporate and shareholder profits. The privatization of long-term care has also facilitated a growth in the casualization of the workforce.  

http://documents.clcctc.ca/sep/LongTermCare-Report-EN.pdf

The Ontario NDP put forward a motion for a full independent inquiry into the Ontario's long term care (LTC) system following the deaths of 1,413 in  LTC homes. The system needs a drastic overhaul and, while many of the problems are obvious, a deep analysis needs to go into what a high quality system should be that replaces it. 

Ontario’s NDP Leader calls it “unconscionable” after the Conservative government threw cold water on its motion to hold a full independent public inquiry into the province’s long-term care system.

The motion was introduced Tuesday afternoon, just hours after the Ford government said it would hold an independent commission into how COVID-19 spread through long-term care and retirement homes across the province.

“For the government to review the government with a behind-closed-doors government-controlled commission is not good enough,” declared Andrea Horwath.

Of the 1,919 deaths so far across Ontario, 1,413 have been in long-term care homes, and there are outbreaks at 190 facilities as of Tuesday.

The Ontario government also requested the aid of the Canadian Armed Forces at five facilities in the province.

The commission is not expected to start its work until September. In the meantime, the government will finalize details like how to protect residents and staff from future outbreaks, and when it will report back to the province.

However, the NDP said only a public inquiry could find and fix the problems that plague long-term care. It noted a step the government could take right away to protect staff and residents would be to make a $4 an hour raise for personal support workers working during the pandemic permanent. It also pointed to creating minimum care hours for each resident and regular inspections mandatory.

“To fix the system,” said Horwath, “we need to give a voice to seniors, workers, experts, and families who have lost loved ones. We need to closely examine the role of private, for-profit corporations.”

“Voting no to a public inquiry is salt in the wound of families grieving the loss of loved ones to COVID-19 in long-term care, and for health care heroes who are run off their feet and still pleading for protective equipment,” she continued. “It is a cause for all of us to worry that the painful, dangerous, decades-in-the-making problems in long-term care are not going to change.”

https://blackburnnews.com/windsor/windsor-news/2020/05/20/conservatives-...

Michael Moriarity wrote:

kropotkin1951 wrote:

jerrym wrote:

The Ontario NDP put forward a motion for a full independent inquiry into the Ontario's long term care (LTC) system following the deaths of 1,413 in  LTC homes. The system needs a drastic overhaul and, while many of the problems are obvious, a deep analysis needs to go into what a high quality system should be that replaces it.

Inquiries are one thing but most people who have intimate dealings with the sector think that it needs to be publicly owned with sufficient staff being paid good wages and benefit to care for the clients. The people providing the care will take care of the rest of the problems if given the resources to do a good job.

Absolutely right. The root of the problem, as usual, is oligarch-dominated governments cutting taxes and services to ensure that the very rich become even more rich.

The reality is that Ford majority government is going to be in power for another two years and there is no chance that they will introduce anything more than token changes to the health care system and certainly will not turn the current shambles over to the public sector. After all they it was the Progressive Conservative Harris government that privatized a large part of system.

Mike Harris had a lasting impact on long-term care when his Progressive Conservatives oversaw the expansion of private ownership in a sector short on regulations and standards. Harris, having spearheaded for-profit ownership back then, now profits handsomely from it himself.

Today, as chair of Chartwell Retirement Residences, the former premier presides over a sprawling operation that describes itself as “the largest retirement living company in Canada.” Didn’t know that? (https://spon.ca/mike-harris-expanded-the-privatization-of-long-term-care...)

The Ontario Liberals had 15 years to change the system, during which they did nothing, beyond an image papering over of the problem, something, like climate change, which they are very good at, one has to admit. 

In order to save face but keep the corporate care lobby on his side, McGuinty had to orchestrate the “reform process” enshrined in the Long-Term Care Homes Act (LTCHA). Despite recent reports such as the 2005 Casa Verde inquest and the Romanow Commission that affirmed minimum staffing standards and public provision of care, McGuinty tasked Elinor Caplan and Shirlee Sharkey to reinvestigate both competitive bidding and understaffing and come up with the correct recommendations that wouldn’t jeopardize votes or party donations. ...

No Legislated Minimum Standard of Care: Ontario is the only province that doesn’t use a legislated minimum care standard, which is estimated to be between 4 and 4.5 hours per resident per day. Former Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty campaigned on a promise of a staffing standard but failed to include it. ...

Continuing Competitive Bidding: The other campaign promise McGuinty broke with impunity was the end of competitive bidding for licenses and proposals. Dubiously low bids and big debts on the account books ushered corporate chains into a new phase of industry consolidation. ...

Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been exchanged between corporate care chains and party delegates since the 1990s (Table 2). Registrations of the Ontario Long-Term Care Association show they lobby both parties around the clock for their interests, even using key Liberal Party personnel during the crucial years of the LTCHA (Table 3) like key Conservative Party people who were deployed during the important legislative window of the late 1990s.  ...

In the neoliberal period, lobbyists with deep knowledge of the political system and public assistance programmes are sent to carve away parts of the welfare system that support an uptick in the profit rate.(https://www.mondialisation.ca/canadas-struggle-against-the-privatization...)

You can bet that the Ford government will avoid a public inquiry because they don't want the public to go on being reminded of the problems that occurred under their watch. They will block a public inquiry at all costs unless the pressure is so great that the damage from not doing one is more than not doing one, which makes it highly unlikely. Demanding a public inquiry can put Ford on the defensive for now. But it needs to be followed up with a detailed plan for a public sector long term care program based on the highest standards. However, the private system, with minor adjustments for appearance sake, is what we are going to have for at least the next two years in Ontario, because the private long term care sector is a major contributor to the PCs  

ETA: and it wouldn't be much different under the Liberals because they will take contributions from the private LTC operators, just as they did in the past when their previous 'reforms' helped put the system where it is today. It is interesting to see our Liberal trolls haven't made a single post on this topic, or on climate change. I guess they don't think these topics, which merely involve life or death, aren't that important in the grand scheme of who wins in politics. 

Canada's federal and provincial governments have been warned for years about the problems in long term care homes and are now pretending to be shocked at these problems. The costs of fixing this will be high but the alternative is to continue having seniors homes as the residence of the Grim Reaper. 

Much of the needed tax revenue could come from the corporate tax-giveaways and the offshore tax-haven trillions if our federal government is willing to make meaningful efforts to get these revenues.

Federal and provincial politicians expressed disgust and dismay at what the military uncovered and promised action, but researchers, experts and advocates say they've been raising the same concerns for years to no avail.

"This is rampant in long-term care," said Diana Pepin, who became a vocal advocate for reform after her 86-year-old mother was abused in an Ottawa care home.

She captured several incidents of abuse against her mother using a hidden camera in 2018, including a personal support worker who told her non-verbal mother she should die as she was getting her ready for bed.

There has been inquiry after inquiry, but little has been done to fix the problem, she said.

While disappointed it took military interference to bring the issue to the foreground, she said this should finally spur some kind of federal action.

So far, Ontario and Quebec have asked the federal government for money to try to fix systemic issues, but experts say that's likely not enough.

"We have to do this together as a country," Carole Estabrooks, who has collected data on long-term care for 15 years as the head of the Translating Research in Elder Care program at the University of Alberta.

"We have to stop the bickering and the jurisdictional issues and act together so that we have some national standards, some national expectations, some resources that are attached to that."

Unlike the bulk of Canada's universal health-care system, the federal government has no jurisdiction over long-term care.

If Canadians believe their acute-care system should exist under federal legislation that guarantees certain principles, it's not unreasonable to expect that continuing care should exist under the same national framework, Estabrooks said, adding that it should include home care, as well as nursing homes and retirement residences.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has advocated for the long-term care system to be brought under the Canada Health Act, the legislative framework underpinning universal health care. ...

The costs associated with long-term care without making significant changes could be massive, according to Ryerson University's National Institute on Ageing.

The institute projects public spending in nursing homes and private homes will grow from $22 billion in 2019 to somewhere between $71 billion and $98 billion annually in 2019 dollars by 2050.

On the high end, that would represent over one-quarter of all projected personal income tax revenue just to maintain the level of care provinces are providing now, the institute said.

https://www.theoutlook.ca/covid-19/advocates-push-ottawa-to-fix-long-ter...

NDPP wrote:

Jane Philpott Says Military Report on Long-Term Care Homes 'Has Shaken Us To Our Core' (and vid)

https://twitter.com/atRachelGilmore/status/1265430235597733892

"Former Liberal Health Minister Jane Philpott, who was ejected from caucus last year during the SNC-Lavalin scandal, says it's time for a national inquiry into conditions in Canada's long-term care homes."

I agree. How about it Justin?

[email protected]

 

*Read CAF report @ #80

Jane Philpott is demanding reforms now but she was health minister from 2015 to 2017 under the Trudeau Liberals. On CBC's Power and Politics, she said we shouldn't look back to blame those involved in the long term care problems in the past because every Canadian was failing to respond to the problem to some extent, which has an element of truth to it. However, some had much more power to change things than others and therefore their role should be examined critically. Could Philpott be trying to avoid any examination of her own record?

Below is a closer look at the companies behind the five long term care homes whose horrendous conditions were referred to in the military report on long term care homes. This is proof that all these private care homes and others across Canada need to be turned over to the public sector with high standards of care and wages ensured. 

New data from the Ontario Health Coalition shows 1,629 residents have died at long-term care and retirement residences and 10 staff have died as of May 19. ...

Altamont Care Community, located in Scarborough, where 52 people have died from COVID-19, is owned by Sienna Senior Living, among the largest for-profit, long-term care providers in Canada.

The company owns 37 long-term care facilities and another 27 retirement residences in Ontario. It owns another 19 long-term care and retirement residences in British Columbia.

Sienna Living made a $7.5-million profit in 2019, down from a $21.8-million profit in 2017, according to the company’s financial records. ...

In a military report, Brig. Gen. Conrad Mialkowski alleged most residents at Altamont were not getting three meals a day due to “significant staffing issues” and that there was “poor nutritional status due to underfeeding.” ...

Military personnel also reported that residents had pressure ulcers due to prolonged bed rest, in some cases for weeks.

“No evidence of residents being moved to wheelchair for parts of day, repositioned in bed, or washed properly,” the report read.

The company declined to answer questions about its financial reports but said it was working to make sure the issues identified by the Canadian Forces “are all dealt with immediately and permanently.”

“To deliver the level of care that our seniors deserve, the staffing challenges we face in the long-term care sector must be addressed,” the company said in a statement. “We are committed to working with the government, and our health system partners, to solve this urgent issue. ...

Orchard Villa, a 308-bed facility in Pickering, is owned by Southbridge Care Homes and has been clobbered by the pandemic, with 77 deaths and at least 96 staff and 225 residents testing positive for novel coronavirus. ...

Families have called for a police investigation into Orchard Villa, and have alleged neglect, malnourishment and failure to adhere to infection prevention protocols.

Southbridge owns 37 long-term care homes across the province, including Country Village Homes near Windsor, where there have been 18 deaths. Southbridge is a limited partnership and doesn’t disclose its financial reports.

Orchard Villa is managed by Extendicare, which owns or runs more than 110 homes and retirement residences across the country. ...

According to Extendicare’s financial reports, the company reported a profit of $28.6 million on revenue of $1.13 billion in 2019, compared with a profit of $31.7 million on revenue of $1.12 billion the year before. ...

Southbridge and Extendicare did not respond to requests for comment.

A $40-million proposed class-action suit was filed against Orchard Villa this week alleging negligence. The home has not yet responded to the civil action, filed in the Ontario court. ...

North York’s Hawthorne Place Care Centre, the scene of 46 deaths, and Eatonville Care Centre in Etobicoke, where 42 people died, are operated by Rykka Care Centres, an operating partner of Responsive Management Inc., based in Markham, Ont. ...

The company is privately held doesn’t publicly report its financial returns.

The company also runs Anson Place Care Centre in Hagersville, which has recorded 27 deaths so far.

At Hawthorne nursing home, the military alleged numerous instances of apparent patient neglect and that “little to no disinfection” had been conducted amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

CAF members noted an infestation of ants and cockroaches and that some staff “delayed changing soiled residents leading to skin breakdown.” Workers were also “afraid for their jobs” and there was not enough personal protective equipment to keep staff safe, the report said.

https://globalnews.ca/news/6998665/long-term-care-homes-ownership-corona...