Premier Doug Ford's Ontario

[Admiral Beez]

Someone needs to ask why Ontario's senior care homes haven't had their annual care audits since 2018 or earlier, as reported on CBC today? Did DoFo make this cut?

 

[W. K. Lis]

The Doug Ford (not) government at work...

 

[DSC]

Someone needs to ask why Ontario's senior care homes haven't had their annual care audits since 2018 or earlier, as reported on CBC today? Did DoFo make this cut?

Well, the PCs were elected in 2018 so I think that even if the line budget for inspections was not cut the fact that the annual inspections appear to have ceased (or been greatly reduced) should tell us something. As should the fact that Mike Harris (yes, THAT Mike) is Chairman of the Board of Chartwell Retirement Residences and the for-profit part of that industry has been lobbying for fewer regulations.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Well, the PCs were elected in 2018 so I think that even if the line budget for inspections was not cut the fact that the annual inspections appear to have ceased (or been greatly reduced) should tell us something. As should the fact that Mike Harris (yes, THAT Mike) is Chairman of the Board of Chartwell Retirement Residences and the for-profit part of that industry has been lobbying for fewer regulations.

Damn. Foxes ruling the hen house.

Of course once the necessary changes are made to senior care homes (not roving p/t staff, improved working conditions, no four person wards, better care, etc...) the cost of going to a long term care place will be prohibitive for more people. As it is it can cost $5,000 a month or more for some places - with the hope that once you've sold your home and liquidated your assets that you'll expire before you run out of money.

 

[PinkLucy]

Does our Minister of Health not follow the news?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1250135753704837127

 

[W. K. Lis]

Doug Ford slammed over delay of measure that protects nursing home residents from COVID-19 by limiting where staff can work

From link.

Premier Doug Ford is letting vulnerable seniors down by delaying a new measure restricting long-term-care staff to working in just one nursing home to slow the spread of COVID-19, New Democrats say.

An emergency order made public Wednesday states the rule aimed at reducing the fast-rising number of outbreaks and deaths won’t take effect for another seven days and will be in place for just two weeks.

Ford spoke with urgency about the need for the move to help “fortify the iron ring of protection” around nursing home residents, but that’s not apparent from the time lag, said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.


“We cannot waste a second now,” she said in a statement released after the premier promised an “all-out plan” that includes “COVID-19 swat teams” from hospitals being sent to hard-hit nursing homes to help control infections and take care of residents.

“Restrictions much tighter than these should have been put in place weeks ago,” Horwath added, raising a concern that nursing-home workers from temp agencies will be exempt in a “giant loophole.”

Staff affected by the restriction include nurses, personal support workers, kitchen and cleaning workers. The NDP and Registered Nurses Association of Ontario are among the organizations that have long called for limiting the number of homes at which health workers can be employed to lower the odds of outbreaks jumping from one facility to another.

Long-term Care Minister Merrillee Fullerton, a former doctor, maintained the government has “acted swiftly and decisively” in recent weeks to restrict visitors to nursing homes, improve screening of staff and boost cleaning protocols.

There were no details, however, on the number of teams being sent to an unknown number of nursing homes in need of assistance.

“It’s already happening in some areas where the local hospitals have rallied,” said Fullerton, who could not provide examples.

The government promised more screening and testing for the new coronavirus in nursing homes.

There have been at least 144 deaths of residents in Ontario nursing homes — about 40 per cent of the official provincial tally — with more than 100 facilities reporting outbreaks and almost 500 staff testing positive for the virus.

The Pinecrest Nursing Home in Bobcaygeon, for example, has lost half its residents to COVID-19.

The Ontario Long Term Care Association has taken to Twitter in recent days issuing pleas to health-care students and others to step forward to help take care of the more than 70,000 residents in 626 nursing homes across the province.

 

[tiffer24]

NEW: Premier Doug Ford says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau "should say no right away" and keep the border closed to the United States. At odds with current US president. "I don't want them in Ontario," Ford says.

 

[DSC]

NEW: Premier Doug Ford says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau "should say no right away" and keep the border closed to the United States. At odds with current US president. "I don't want them in Ontario," Ford says.

Presumably, the US could allow people to cross the border going south with no restrictions and we could permit people to cross going north only if they go into 14-day quarantine. In fact, the Province could impose this quarantine requirement even if the Feds were 'forced' to open the border. Of course, it makes no sense to re-open the border too soon but it is Trump we are dealing with!

 

[Admiral Beez]

NEW: Premier Doug Ford says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau "should say no right away" and keep the border closed to the United States. At odds with current US president. "I don't want them in Ontario," Ford says.

DoFo has a point. In Canada we have 29,925 cases, 7,953 of which are in Ontario. In NY state alone they have 226,343 or nearly ten times that of Canada. We don't want anyone from the US or especially any New York or New England crossings to enter Canada.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Vulnerable seniors in assisted living will not receive COVID-19 testing

From link.

Premier Doug Ford is promising to ramp up COVID-19 testing for residents of long-term care, homeless shelters, group homes for people with disabilities, and for pregnant women and patients undergoing dialysis or chemotherapy.

But vulnerable seniors in assisted living are on their own.

There has been no mention of assisted housing, a small subset of homes funded by Local Health Integrated Networks, (LHINs), where seniors in apartments rely on personal support workers to help with daily needs such as bathing, dressing and eating.

Advocates want the government to give assisted-living homes the same COVID directives as those given to nursing homes.

Recent protections aimed at long-term care include expanded COVID-19 testing, surgical masks for all workers, and, starting next week, a 14-day rule requiring the mostly part-time workforce report to one home only, to stop the spread of the virus.

British Columbia recently imposed a similar one-site order, but unlike Ontario, it did not add an expiry date, saying the rule will continue “until further notice.”

Leaders in the assisted living sector, such as Patrick O’Neill, CEO of the Niagara Ina Grafton Gage Village in St. Catharines, said his residents are just as fragile as those living in long-term care but are being overlooked.

“The issue is the government has not recognized that these areas are as risky as (long-term care),” O’Neill said.

Last month, a man in his 80s, who lived in assisted living at Niagara Ina Grafton Gage Village, tested positive for COVID-19 and died in hospital.

There are 200 residents in assisted living at the seniors housing complex, with 40 living separately in long-term care. They share the dining room and public spaces at the home.

Even though there was no government directive telling him to do so, O’Neill told staff to work in one home only and locked down the entire complex.

“We changed all the exterior door locks, so no one could get in and out and funneled everyone into the main entrance for screening,” he said.

O’Neill said he sent more than a dozen staff home to isolate for two weeks, paying their wages “because it’s not their fault” and hired new workers as replacements.

He is paying summer students to screen visitors at the front door, for travel history and symptoms of COVID and is paying to have all the hard surfaces in the building cleaned four times a day.

O’Neill said he has spent $75,000 on protections for the assisted living building, with no promise of reimbursement from the government, although nursing and retirement homes will get extra money.

So far, no other residents have tested positive for the virus, he said.

Out of all the “congregate” living homes in Ontario, assisted living continues to fly under the radar, said Lisa Levin, CEO of Advantage Ontario, which represents not-for-profit, municipal and charitable seniors’ housing. Most are independently operated, some by charities or churches, making it hard to track the number of people they serve, she said.

“It’s because they are so eclectic that it is hard to put something in place or identify them,” Levin said.

It’s also difficult to know how these homes are faring during the pandemic. Other than the COVID-related death of the man from Ina Grafton Gage, there have been few reports of outbreaks in assisted living homes.

“That’s my concern. Why are we not hearing anything?” she said. “Is it because there is no COVID in those homes? Which is great. Or, is it because something is slowly brewing? I don’t know.”

Earlier this week, Advantage Ontario’s daily bulletin for its members included a copy of a letter sent to Premier Ford and Health Minister Christine Elliott, asking for equal protections and funding for assisted living.

Levin refused to comment on the letter. A copy obtained by the Star warned that the risk of COVID in group settings such as assisted living and supportive housing for people with disabilities is “extremely high.” The Ontario Community Support Association also signed the letter.

It cited the privately run Residence Herron in Dorval, Quebec, where at least 31 residents have died.

“These situations will continue here in Ontario if we continue to neglect these facilities,” the letter said. “We cannot allow this to continue.”

 

[W. K. Lis]

Ontario’s long-term care response is still lacking

From link.

...Former Ontario Premier Mike Harris is the chairman of the board of directors at Chartwell, Canada’s largest for-profit retirement home chain and one of Canada’s largest employers of personal service workers. While he was premier, Harris removed the minimum care standard in long-term care facilities. Today’s crisis in long-term care facilities was long in the making and is the result of political decisions that have benefitted the few and hurt the most vulnerable....

List of long-term care and retirement homes impacted by COVID-19 in GTA

Dated April 16, 2020

From link.

Here is a list of COVID-19 outbreaks and deaths in GTA long-term care facilities and retirement home.​

​

CTV News Toronto will continue to update this list as new information becomes available.​

​

Toronto​

​

Long-term care homes:​

• Eatonville Care Centre (420 The East Mall): 30 deaths
• St Clair O'Connor Nursing Home (2701 St Clair Ave E.): 7 deaths
• Seven Oaks (9 Neilson Rd.): 23 deaths
• Kipling Acres (2233 Kipling Ave.): 4 deaths
• Mon Sheong Home for the Aged (36 D'Arcy St.): 8 deaths
• Baycrest Apotex Centre - Jewish Home for the Aged (3560 Bathurst St.): 1 deaths
• Chartwell Gibson Long Term Care Residence (1925 Steeles Ave E.): 5 deaths
• Craiglee Nursing Home – (2 West 102 Craiglee Dr.)
• L'Chaim Retirement Home (718 Sheppard Ave. W.
• Chester Village (3555 Danforth Ave.)
• The Claremont (305 Balliol St.)
• Main Street Terrace (77 Main St.)
• Hellenic Home (2411 Lawrence Ave. E.)
• Ina Grafton Gage Home (40 Bell Estate)
• Valley View Residence long-term care (541 Finch St.)
• Bendale Acres long-term care (2920 Lawrence Ave. E.)
• Ehatare Nursing Home – (40 Old Kingston Rd.)
• Humber Valley Terrace (95 Humber College Blvd.)
• Labdara Lithuanian Nursing Home (8 Ressurection Rd.)
• Ukrainian Canadian Care Centre (60 Richview Rd.)
• Midland Gardens Care Community (130 Midland Ave.)
• Weston Terrace Care Community (2005 Lawrence Ave W.)
• Isabel and Arthur Meighen Manor (155 Millwood Rd.)
• The Rekai Centre at Wellesley (160 Wellesley St E.)
• Norwood Long Term Care (122 Tyndall Ave.)
• Chartwell White Eagle Long Term Residence (138 Dowling Ave.)
• Dom Lipa – (52 Neilson Dr.)
• The Westbury (495 The West Mall)
• Harold and Grace Baker Centre (1 Northwestern Ave.)
• Lakeshore Lodge Nursing Home (3197 Lakeshore Blvd W.)
• Hawthorne Place Care Centre – (2045 Finch Ave W.)
• McCall Centre for Continuing Care – (140 Sherway Ave.)
• Providence Healthcare - Houses of Providence – (3276 St Clair Ave E.)
• Elm Grove Living Centre (35 Elm Grove Ave.)
• The Rekai Centre at Sherbourne Place (435 Sherbourne St.)
• West Park Long Term Care Centre (82 Buttonwood Ave.)
• Kensington Gardens North Building – (45 Brunswick Ave.)
• Extendicare Bayview (550 Cummer Ave.)
• Village of Humber Heights
• Long Term Care (2245 Lawrence Ave.)

Retirement homes:

• Village of Humber Heights Retirement Home (2245 Lawrence Ave W.): 2 deaths
• Hazelton Place Retirement Residence (111 Avenue Rd.)
• Bradgate Arms (54 Foxbar Ave.)
• Canterbury Place Retirement Residence (1 Canterbury Pl.)
• New Horizons Tower retirement home (1140 Bloor St.)
• Amica on the Avenue retirement home (1066 Avenue Rd.)
• Queens Estate Retirement Residence (265 Queens Dr.)
• The Russell Hill Retirement Residence (262 St Clair Ave. W.)
• Forest Hill Place (365 Castlefield Ave.)
• Scarborough Retirement Residence (148 Markham Rd.)
• Chartwell Lansing Retirement Residence (10 Senlac Rd.)
• Christie Gardens Apartments & Care (600 Melita Cres.)
• Terrace Gardens Retirement Residence (3705 Bathurst St.)

 

[W. K. Lis]

Prescription refill limits during COVID-19 pandemic mean added costs for seniors

From link.

A provincial recommendation to limit prescriptions to a 30-day supply during the coronavirus pandemic has Ontario seniors demanding relief from dispensing fees that have, for some, tripled in cost.

CARP, a national advocacy group for the rights of aging Canadians, is being “inundated” with emails from seniors, who worry about being hit with multiple dispensing fees now that pharmacists are filling prescriptions monthly instead of every 90 days, said chief policy officer Marissa Lennox.

CARP is calling on the Ontario government to help cover the added costs associated with limiting prescription refills, which is intended to guard against the stockpiling of medications and prevent shortages during the pandemic.

Lennox said this is causing undue financial hardship for Ontario seniors.

“We have received so many inquiries, complaints, concerns. A lot of seniors are already feeling the hit of COVID-19 on their pocketbook, whether it was in their retirement savings, whether they lost their jobs. It makes for really difficult decisions between having to pay for medications and maybe food.”

Governments across Canada have moved to limit prescription refills during COVID-19. Some other provinces, including Alberta, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Prince Edward Island, “have taken steps to either waive the fee or have it subsidized,” Lennox said. But Ontario is not mitigating costs for seniors and other members of the province’s public drug plan who are now facing multiple dispensing fees.

However, that could soon change. On Thursday, Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said the province is ready to move “very quickly” to ease the strain related to limits on prescription refills.

“We had some discussions about it yesterday and we expect to be making that available to the public very soon, because we know that this is a difficulty for a number of people,” she said. “You can expect something from us very shortly on that issue.”

Ed Sikora, 86, who lives in Burlington, Ont., said he didn’t realize that he’d only been issued a 30-day refill on his prescriptions, instead of his usual three-month supply, until he got home from the drugstore earlier this week. When he called the pharmacist to inquire, he was stunned to learn that he’d have to pay the dispensing fee two more times.

“It’s ridiculous that they’re charging you the full amount and only giving you one third of the quantity,” he said, adding that his retirement savings have taken a hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Every dollar counts,” he said.

Dispensing fees for medications eligible under the Ontario Drug Benefit plan at most pharmacies range between $8.83 and $13.25, depending on location. Seniors and others covered under the public drug plan are responsible for part of these dispensing fees — a co-payment — which can be up to $6.11.

In recommending pharmacists limit prescription refills last month, Ontario’s Health Ministry said, “Dispensers may use professional judgment to provide a longer days’ supply in exceptional cases with appropriate documentation.”

Justin Bates, CEO of the Ontario Pharmacists Association, said pharmacists across Canada urged governments to impose limits on refills because of concerns about the global supply chain of medications and to stop the “panic buying” that occurred in the early days of the pandemic.

“We can’t be reactive in these situations because once a drug shortage occurs it’s really difficult to fix that situation,” Bates said. “We wanted to avoid any scenario where a patient couldn’t get their medications.”

“We’re working collaboratively with the Ford government … to hopefully bring a solution forward. Our hope is that they understand the necessity here.”

Lennox is also hearing from seniors across the country who are fearful that added trips to pharmacies to fill prescriptions could put them at greater risk of exposure to COVID-19.

To address these concerns, Bates said pharmacies are increasing delivery services and curbside pickup options, as well as limiting the number of customers in stores and introducing dedicated hours for seniors to shop.

 

[W. K. Lis]

COVID-19 exposes gaps in for-profit driven long-term care

From link.

There has been stunning news recently about hundreds of older people dying of COVID-19 in long-term care facilities. In some cases, those people had been left alone and drenched in their own urine and faeces. This is absolutely shocking and unacceptable. Advocates for the frail elderly and unions representing workers in those facilities which have unions have been saying for years that government and corporate actions have undercut both the quality of care to residents and the health and safety of front-line workers.

It took the pandemic to break an already compromised system. In Canada, almost half of the approximately 1000 deaths from the virus as of April 14 occurred in long-term care homes. In Ontario, where I live, as of April there were 14 COVID-19 infections in 114 of 626 facilities.

At a news conference, Ontario Premier Doug Ford looked shaken. He said, among other things, that he would make it illegal for individuals to work in more than one care home simultaneously, a situation which potentially allows the virus to either enter or leave the premises with those workers.

But Ford has been a big part of the problem. Having people work in multiple locations has become commonplace primarily because the corporations that own for-profit long-term care homes hire workers part-time so that they can pay them poorly and avoid providing benefits. Until now, the Ford government has turned a blind eye to this. As well, the previous Liberal government was set to raise the minimum wage in Ontario, a move that would have helped many long-term care workers. Yet one of Ford's first acts when elected in 2018 was to cancel that planned increase.

Ford has much to answer for. The CBC reported on April 14 that in 2019 only nine of the province's 626 homes received a comprehensive resident quality inspection, or RQI. The CBC reviewed reports from the last five years for all homes in the province. They found that most received RQIs in 2015, 2016 and 2017, but that number dropped to just over half in 2018 and to only nine in 2019. To be blunt, that means that under Kathleen Wynne's government there were a good number of comprehensive inspections, but Ford cancelled almost all of them.

This kind of behaviour is nothing new for the Conservatives.

Back in 2006, I did the wordsmithing for a report researched by The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE). The report was called Dignity Denied: Long-Term Care & Canada's Elderly. The document talked about a culture of political and corporate cronyism that was overtaking the long-term care sector. It was occurring throughout the country but was especially prominent in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario.

Mike Harris, who was Ontario's premier from 1995-2002, responded to growing waiting lists in 1998 by announcing that more than $1 billion would be spent to create 20,000 new spaces. When the contracts were awarded for construction of beds, 68 per cent of them were handed to the private sector. Three giant companies, Extendicare, Leisureworld and Central Park Lodges, received 40 per cent of the contracted spaces. The public was to pay for building facilities to be owned and operated by corporations to enrich their shareholders.

Provincial election finance records showed that between 1995 and 1999 for-profit long-term care companies donated almost $340,000 to the Ontario Conservative party. That did not include thousands of dollars donated to the provincial leadership campaigns of Ernie Eves, Tony Clement and Jim Flaherty.

One of the biggest players in the private sector long-term care field is Chartwell Retirement Residences. Mike Harris now sits comfortably as the chair of Chartwell's board of directors and according to Unifor, another union in the sector, Harris pulls down $237,000 a year for this part time job. Meanwhile, Unifor, says the company pays only the minimum wage to many of its front-line employees.

The 2006 NUPGE report says that the long-term care model promoted by Harris drains the profits from care into the pockets of owners and shareholders. The public sector model provides better care and keeps people safer than a for-profit system governed by the same market forces that motivate software developers, cable companies and fast food chains. Yet, Harris and some other premiers consistently pushed privatization. But the exploitative practices in the privatized for-profit sector have also had a negative and cascading effect upon the quality of care for clients, not to mention the wages and working conditions of care providers.

The major recommendation in NUPGE's 2006 report was that long-term care should be integrated into the Canada Health Act and become an insured service under the umbrella of Medicare. COVID-19 has exposed a shortcoming in a long-term care system that should be there to protect the health and very lives of our beloved parents and grandparents. That has not been done. It's time for change.

Walkerton version 2.0.

 

[PinkLucy]

Doug is still Doug.

 

[SunriseChampion]

Is that Doug's doing at all, though?

That seems like it'd be a bureaucratic decision. Or ministerial, if anything.