Health Minister Randy Delorey says the government will “pursue and act upon all the recommendations” that came out of an expert panel on long-term care.
He couldn’t explain why the province had waited two years before issuing a tender to collect information on the matter, nor would he provide any estimate for how much the province is prepared to invest to turn recommendations on paper into real reforms.
Progressive Conservative critic Barbara Adams is concerned the panel’s decision not to recommend specific changes to the staff-to-resident ratio will give the Liberal government an excuse to avoid spending more money.
“As a physiotherapist, I have worked in most of the long-term care facilities in metro and all of these recommendations have been talked about for a decade,” said Adams, MLA for Cole Harbour.
“The problem is you need the funding to do these things. When you can’t say how many workers we need per patient, then the government can say we will add a few more workers and ‘we’re done.’ Without clear numbers, which the panel did not provide, and which was part of their mandate, that’s the biggest frustration among all of the stakeholders.”
“This committee’s report feels to me like long-term care is on fire and they’ve given us a glass of water,” said Nan MacFadgen, a licensed practical nurse and president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents continuing care assistants in 47 homes.
“We’re desperate. Right now we have entry level continuing care assistants working for $16.38 an hour who haven’t seen a raise since 2013. So who would be attracted to this profession?”
“In my view, the panel is right to say the present ratio of staff to residents is inadequate, it is falling short, we need more,” said NDP leader Gary Burrill. “I disagree that they ought not be recommending a ratio at this moment. We do have a lot of research about this subject. The best thing to do would be to implement the ratio levels as recommended in the Broken Homes report.”
Broken Homes called for an increase in daily hours of care per patient from 3.1 to 4.0. Panel chair Janice Keefe suggested that measure is difficult to impose because of so many differences among the 92 licensed homes.
Chrissy Dunnington, 39, was a healthy disabled adult with spina bifida when she entered Parkstone Enhanced Care in 2017. Chrissy died in March 2018 following complications from a severely infected bedsore the size of a fist. Her sister Elizabeth Deveau says Chrissy’s family is “encouraged” by many of the recommendations from the experts, including those which direct the province to fully implement a recent strategy to prevent pressure injuries, hire more caregivers, and to provide “dedicated space” for disabled younger adults with different needs.
Deveau says she is hopeful the province will act on the panel’s recommendation to overhaul the “antiquated” Homes for Special Act to open the door for further changes. Dunnington’s family would like to see the province require all homes get accreditation, protect “whistleblowers,” and tackle issues around how patients get shifted. The Shannex home where Chrissy lived relied on mechanical hoists and the policy there did not permit staff to lift residents.
“You can’t have a ‘no lift’ policy and expect patients not to get bedsores,” said Deveau.
Norma Silverstein’s 93-year-old father John Ferguson was also rushed to hospital in septic shock from a pressure injury he developed while a resident in Harbourstone Enhanced Care in Sydney in the autumn of 2017. Norma and her husband Bob are “pleased” with the recommendations made by the expert panel.
“It gave an unbiased, clear picture of the state of long-term care in Nova Scotia,” the couple, that founded an advocacy group in Cape Breton called Families For Quality Eldercare, said in a written statement. “Not only were deficiencies cited, but solutions were recommended. Even though the present premier said he wouldn’t spend another dime on long-term care, he has to accept this report and find ways to address the issues cited. The timeline for suggested areas to be met is very realistic, with short term, medium term and long term goals.”
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