In Ontario, COVID has raced through nursing homes like a wildfire. The Toronto Star has looked into the present situation. Martin Regg Cohn writes:
The results from a Toronto Star investigation published Saturday are profoundly disturbing — for residents trapped in those homes, people with parents in long-term care, any voter who may one day end up in a home, and politicians responsible for the system. Regardless of ownership model, the facilities have been hit with outbreaks of COVID-19 at roughly the same rate, but once affected, the infection outcomes are dramatically different.
Residents in profit-seeking homes are about twice as likely to catch COVID-19 and die than residents in non-profits, and about four times as likely to become infected and die as those in municipally-run homes, the Star found. We won’t know where the final numbers end up until further down the road of this pandemic, but it is impossible to ignore the early data.
It's easy to blame Mike Harris for the problem:
He furthered the for-profit sector when he presided over deregulation as premier in the mid-1990s, undoing the staffing ratios of the previous NDP government. He profits from it today from his perch as chair of Chartwell Retirement Residences, one of Canada’s biggest private operators.
But the present model existed before Harris' arrival. The simple truth is that nursing homes can't be run like Walmart:
The profit motive works in our market system. But what works for Walmart — relentless cost-cutting pressure on suppliers and minimal staffing ratios for low wage part-timers — is hardly an optimal model for nursing homes where part-time, underpaid caregivers are responsible for safeguarding people, not products.
The data may change over time, but we need to look at ownership with open minds and open eyes, recognizing that there is no panacea. As the Star’s research makes clear, there is no immunity from infection in not-for-profit nursing homes — the Salvation Army’s Meighen Manor in Toronto has reported dozens of confirmed cases and more than 34 deaths in a 168-bed facility.
We dare not demonize the ownership, for sometimes it is us: Revera Long Term Care Inc., an industry giant, is owned by the pension fund manager for federal public servants, soldiers and police. Which means that a fearful Revera resident might be a civil service pensioner whose monthly retirement income depends on the profits earned by the owner of that very home.
One thing is certain. We can no longer tolerate the present model for long term care. It will have to change -- like lots of other things.
Image: Calgary Herald
4 comments:
It would be interesting to compare the publicly-run care homes with the privately-run ones for such things as staffing ratios, staffing mix (nos. of RNs, RPNs & PSWs) and CEO vs. staff remuneration. I bet you'll find the privately-run institutions have fewer staff per resident, higher ratios of unskilled PSWs to skilled RNs, and huge spreads in pay between the CEO and the staff. All of these lead to workplace dissatisfaction and unsafe conditions for residents.
It may be time to abolish private care homes. According to the data, they're less safe and certainly less accountable to the public they serve.
Cap
It seems pretty clear, Cap. When profit is paramount, people die.
Private versus public isn't the only criteria. One of our relatives spent time in several nursing homes, all under the auspices of BC funding. The best, by far, was run by Mennonites. Next best was In Interior Health facility which was crumbling and closed down in favour of one of Gordon Campbell's privatization schemes. The owners promptly fired all the staff and rehired those willing to work for lower wages. Not surprisingly, the foreign owned company has several times been raked over the coals by Interior Health to no avail. When profit to shareholders is the only motive the results suck.
Our governments have collectively lost the ability to regulate and enforce standards in every field. Care of the elderly is just one example.
I entirely agree with your last sentence, Toby.
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