https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-canadians-died-of-covid-19-in-long-term-care-by-the-thousands-so-why/
Canadians died of COVID-19 in long-term care by the thousands. So why are there so few coroners’
reports?
The enhanced oversight protocols were short-lived, however, leaving Ontario out of step with other provinces. In the fall of 2018, just months after Premier Doug Ford entered office, the ministry all but eliminated wide-ranging inspections. Instead, it began to focus on responding to critical incidents and complaints. Only nine of the province’s 627 nursing homes received RQIs in all of 2019, said Jane Meadus, a lawyer at the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly in Toronto.
Ontarians have been left with a severely weakened oversight system, with fewer inspections of nursing homes and fewer investigations of deaths of residents.
“We’re losing that ability to have inquests or investigations,†Ms. Meadus said. “It’s a whole breakdown of the system.â€
Manitoba, by comparison, conducts reviews of roughly 80 of its 125 nursing homes every year. Quebec assesses the quality of living environments in its 412 homes over a three-year cycle. And New Brunswick subjects each one of its 71 homes to an annual inspection.
Ontario went into the pandemic with an oversight regime that left it up to operators of nursing homes to flag any deaths that required investigating. As the virus spread, family members struggled against a system not necessarily interested in working for them, said Samir Sinha, director of geriatrics at the University Health Network and Sinai Health System, and chair of a committee that is developing new national long-term care services standards.
“Everything just kept on getting dismantled, so that there really became no mechanism in place for accountability,†he said. “We were just leaving it up to the homes and hoping for the best.â€
The virus was particularly lethal in Ontario, where it killed 3,793 nursing home residents. An independent commission that examined the impact of COVID-19 on nursing homes in the province called for a new model to restore the public’s faith in Ontario’s stewardship of the sector. The commission said for-profit companies, which own two-thirds of the province’s homes, should no longer be in the business of caring for residents. The for-profit sector should continue building facilities, it said, but should leave operations up to organizations that are mission-driven, not profit-driven.
Mr. Ford has not formally responded to the commission’s report, released in April. His government is forging ahead with plans to build new nursing homes and refurbish existing ones – an initiative that critics say merely rewards many of the same private operators whose homes have had high pandemic fatality rates. Of the 80 contracts awarded in March alone, 35 went to for-profit companies.
Open this photo in gallery
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, middle, and other MPPs bow their heads for a silent tribute to COVID-19 victims at Queen's Park in May of 2020.
Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
Other countries have held nursing home operators accountable for COVID-19 deaths. Massachusetts’ top law enforcement official has brought criminal charges against the former leaders of a home for military veterans. Spain and Switzerland have also opened criminal investigations.
Several reports in Canada have found evidence that nursing home residents died of neglect.
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Police, however, have remained conspicuously silent everywhere but in Quebec.
The Canadian Armed Forces provided the first set of outside eyes on what was happening inside Ontario’s and Quebec’s long-term care sectors, after the federal government deployed the military to several nursing homes.
In a report released in May of 2020, the military chronicled horrific conditions in five homes in Ontario, ranging from poor infection-control practices to abuse of residents. A second report that same month described orderlies in Quebec seniors’ homes disappearing during their shifts and employees ignoring safety instructions.
The military also alleges that dozens of residents at two homes in Ontario died not from COVID-19, but rather from neglect and dehydration.
Canadians died of COVID-19 in long-term care by the thousands. So why are there so few coroners’
reports?
The enhanced oversight protocols were short-lived, however, leaving Ontario out of step with other provinces. In the fall of 2018, just months after Premier Doug Ford entered office, the ministry all but eliminated wide-ranging inspections. Instead, it began to focus on responding to critical incidents and complaints. Only nine of the province’s 627 nursing homes received RQIs in all of 2019, said Jane Meadus, a lawyer at the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly in Toronto.
Ontarians have been left with a severely weakened oversight system, with fewer inspections of nursing homes and fewer investigations of deaths of residents.
“We’re losing that ability to have inquests or investigations,†Ms. Meadus said. “It’s a whole breakdown of the system.â€
Manitoba, by comparison, conducts reviews of roughly 80 of its 125 nursing homes every year. Quebec assesses the quality of living environments in its 412 homes over a three-year cycle. And New Brunswick subjects each one of its 71 homes to an annual inspection.
Ontario went into the pandemic with an oversight regime that left it up to operators of nursing homes to flag any deaths that required investigating. As the virus spread, family members struggled against a system not necessarily interested in working for them, said Samir Sinha, director of geriatrics at the University Health Network and Sinai Health System, and chair of a committee that is developing new national long-term care services standards.
“Everything just kept on getting dismantled, so that there really became no mechanism in place for accountability,†he said. “We were just leaving it up to the homes and hoping for the best.â€
The virus was particularly lethal in Ontario, where it killed 3,793 nursing home residents. An independent commission that examined the impact of COVID-19 on nursing homes in the province called for a new model to restore the public’s faith in Ontario’s stewardship of the sector. The commission said for-profit companies, which own two-thirds of the province’s homes, should no longer be in the business of caring for residents. The for-profit sector should continue building facilities, it said, but should leave operations up to organizations that are mission-driven, not profit-driven.
Mr. Ford has not formally responded to the commission’s report, released in April. His government is forging ahead with plans to build new nursing homes and refurbish existing ones – an initiative that critics say merely rewards many of the same private operators whose homes have had high pandemic fatality rates. Of the 80 contracts awarded in March alone, 35 went to for-profit companies.
Open this photo in gallery
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, middle, and other MPPs bow their heads for a silent tribute to COVID-19 victims at Queen's Park in May of 2020.
Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
Other countries have held nursing home operators accountable for COVID-19 deaths. Massachusetts’ top law enforcement official has brought criminal charges against the former leaders of a home for military veterans. Spain and Switzerland have also opened criminal investigations.
Several reports in Canada have found evidence that nursing home residents died of neglect.
Loading...
Police, however, have remained conspicuously silent everywhere but in Quebec.
The Canadian Armed Forces provided the first set of outside eyes on what was happening inside Ontario’s and Quebec’s long-term care sectors, after the federal government deployed the military to several nursing homes.
In a report released in May of 2020, the military chronicled horrific conditions in five homes in Ontario, ranging from poor infection-control practices to abuse of residents. A second report that same month described orderlies in Quebec seniors’ homes disappearing during their shifts and employees ignoring safety instructions.
The military also alleges that dozens of residents at two homes in Ontario died not from COVID-19, but rather from neglect and dehydration.
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