Ontario to launch review of long-term care system

Merilee Fullerton, Ontario minister of long-term care, announced Tuesday that Ontario would begin a review of the long-term care system set to start in September.

“Over the next several months, our government will be finalizing details of the commission including terms of reference, membership, leadership of the commission and reporting timelines,” Fullerton said in a press release.

“We must act quickly and decisively, and that is why an independent non-partisan commission is the best way to conduct a thorough and expedited review,” Fullerton said.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, deaths caused by the virus have affected Canada’s LTC facilities disproportionately.

Over 80% of Canada’s COVID-19 fatalities are from LTC facilities based on data collected by independent journalist Nora Loreto. This data shows that the majority of deaths have happened in Ontario and Quebec’s LTC systems.

Of the 5842 Canadians who have died from COVID-19, I’ve linked 4789 people to a residential care facility. That’s 81.9% and is missing at least 100 people who have not been revealed by either PH officials or other journalists.

Here’s the data: https://t.co/rtxyvfFyff

— Nora Loreto (@NoLore) May 19, 2020

“As we all take steps to contain this pandemic, the Commission will get down to work and provide us with guidance on how to improve the long-term care system and better protect residents and staff from any future outbreaks,” said Fullerton.

In 2019, the Ontario government scaled back regular inspections of LTC facilities. Long-term care providers wanted to see the inspection shifted to something more effective. Instead the Ford government scrapped the inspection process unless a critical event happened.

The ministry of long-term care told CBC that “it completed 2,800 inspections in 2019, but only nine of those were RQIs [resident quality inspection; an unannounced evaluation of an LTC facility]. The rest were critical incident inspections, complaints inspections and related follow-ups.”

CBC INVESTIGATES: The “complaints-based” inspection model that the Ford government adopted in 2018 for long-term care homes caught far fewer problems with infection prevention and control than the comprehensive inspections that Ontario abandoned. https://t.co/TQxZvYUoUs

— Mike Crawley (@CBCQueensPark) April 17, 2020

Time will tell what the system review will look like.

This article was originally published on GuelphWire.