Ontario Commits To Continue Funding For-profit Long Term Care Homes Despite COVID Pandemic Findings | The Canadian News

TORONTO – It’s been over a year since Cathy Parkes’s father died of COVID-19, but she’s still paying close attention to inspection reports from the long-term care home where she last breathed.

His father was one of 70 residents who died in Orchard Villa, a home in Pickering, Ontario, during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020.

As recently as June, the house was criticized for not following infection prevention and control protocols. Now, Parkes and other family members are protesting against a possible renewal and expansion of the homeowner’s license, Southbridge Care Homes.

“I’m amazed that it’s a question,” Parkes said of the possible renewal. “It should be a simple enough no, considering the history of the home.”

A scathing report from members of the Canadian Armed Forces who were called in to help long-term care homes overwhelmed by the pandemic found that Orchard Villa residents were suffering without adequate nutrition or hydration.

Parkes said he wants the municipality to take over the house. His position is not uncommon among families, advocates and opposition politicians who argue that Ontario should stop owning long-term care homes for profit, a segment of the industry that recorded the highest death toll. among residents.

In Parkes’ view, the process should begin by revoking the licenses of companies that saw large numbers of deaths and a documented breach of protocols.

But the progressive conservative government’s priority has been building new long-term care beds and it continues to award contracts to private operators.

Of 220 planned long-term care development projects, 111 will be for-profit, said a spokesman for the Long-Term Care Ministry. The government is currently receiving offers for long-term care development, as it aims to build 30,000 new beds over the next decade. Successful applicants are expected to be announced early next year.

More than 4,000 long-term care residents have died during the COVID-19 pandemic. For-profit households had nearly twice as many residents infected with the virus and 78 percent more deaths compared to non-profit households, according to scientists who advised the government on the pandemic.

The commission investigating how the pandemic unfolded in long-term care noted in its final report that “now is the time to review the business” of the sector. He recommended that the government follow a model that allows private financing for construction, but that nonprofit operators manage the houses.

Vivian Stamatopoulos, an Ontario Tech University professor who studies family care, said the government’s continued support of for-profit homes is “terrifying” during a “watershed moment” as the province prepares to hand out 30-year contracts. for the next generation of homes.

“We are going against all the evidence about what we should be doing,” he said in a recent interview. “We are not doing anything to change the system. We are literally reproducing it even worse. “

Stamatopoulos, who testified at the COVID-19 Long-Term Care Commission, said the province should focus on the liability of bad actors during the pandemic with documented negligence, including property recovery.

Saskatchewan has taken some steps in that direction. It plans to terminate its contract with long-term care provider Extendicare, which saw the province’s deadliest COVID-19 outbreak in one of its homes, and take over operations at the facility.

Ontario’s new Democrats have pledged that, if elected next June, they will phase out for-profit long-term care operators within eight years.

The opposition plan for the sector also promises to stop issuing and renew licenses to for-profit providers and to finance other entities to take over the homes. NDP leader Andrea Horwath formally called on the Ford administration in the legislature last month to place a moratorium on licenses for for-profit providers.

Liberal leader Steven Del Duca said his party is still developing its electoral platform on long-term care, but noted that the pandemic has highlighted that profits and long-term care “don’t mix well.”

Long-term care minister Rod Phillips has argued that recent changes introduced by progressive conservatives aimed at improving accountability and increasing law enforcement will improve the situation.

He said de-licensing homes for profit is impractical, arguing that such an approach would cost money and time that could be better spent expanding the sector.

“We would rather spend billions of dollars building new homes,” Phillips said in a recent interview.

There are approximately 38,000 people on waiting lists for long-term care spaces in the province.

Non-profit, for-profit, and municipal operators are encouraged to apply under the government’s call for tenders, but the report on the commission and a group representing non-profit operators have recommended policy changes that they would make things easier for nonprofits. operators to apply successfully.

Parkes said he has a hard time trusting that the government’s promises of greater accountability are more than a pre-election speech.

“The military report comes out and Doug Ford says ‘I’ll hold these people accountable,’ but instead they’re giving them licenses,” Parkes said. “It’s a slap in the face.”

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