Care-home reports should be made public
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/01/2021 (1466 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
When the Pallister government launched an independent investigation into the deadly COVID-19 outbreak at Maples Long Term Care Home last fall, there was every reason to believe the findings would be made public.
More than two months later, the province has refused to release the probe’s preliminary findings, with no word on when the public might see a final report.
Province doesn't require personal-care homes to make licence reviews public
Posted:
Manitobans aren't told if a personal-care home's licence is under review unless they ask about it directly.
Paramedics were called to the Winnipeg care home Nov. 6 when several residents required emergency care. Some were transported to hospital, two residents died before paramedics arrived and many others required onsite treatment, including intravenous hydration. The public only became aware of what occurred after a social-media post by an anonymous paramedic (who described the situation as a “nightmare”) went viral the next day.
Winnipeg Regional Health Authority officials, in the following days, acknowledged the care home was short staffed. The facility had less than half its scheduled health-care aides working the day paramedics were called. Maples officials had requested staff support from the WRHA in the days leading up to Nov. 6. None was given.
Gina Trinidad, the WRHA’s chief health operations officer, said the health authority should have planned better to ensure care homes had adequate staffing levels during the pandemic.
Cameron Friesen, then health minister, deflected responsibility for the Maples calamity, saying problems at the care home were never brought to his attention. Shared Health’s chief nursing officer Lanette Siragusa claimed, despite an obvious lack of preparedness, that the province did everything it could to prevent COVID-19 from getting into care homes.
Government had a duty to protect some of Manitoba’s most vulnerable people. It failed.
Mr. Friesen launched an independent review into what went wrong at Maples, saying the probe would get to the bottom of what occurred. The expectation was that those findings would be shared with the public. So far, the Pallister government has refused to release them.
Lynn Stevenson, a former British Columbia deputy minister, was hired to head the investigation. More than a month has passed since she completed her preliminary report; a document the province said will not be publicly released. No valid reason has been given.
There are many questions about the Maples situation to which residents, their families and the public deserve answers. Why, for example, did the province not act on preliminary plans made earlier in the year to beef up staffing at personal-care homes to prepare for potential outbreaks? The Pallister government had the entire summer to plan. The risk of outbreaks in nursing homes was well known, especially after a rash of long-term care home deaths in Quebec earlier in the year.
The WRHA conducted several inspections at Maples in the weeks leading up to the outbreak, including an unannounced visit four days before paramedics were called. Why did those inspections not uncover chronic staffing shortages and substandard care at the facility?
A spokesperson for the province said this week many of the recommendations in the Stevenson report have already been implemented. How is the public supposed to verify that if government refuses to release the findings?
The report may contain information that casts a negative light on the province and its oversight of personal-care homes. That’s not a reason for the Pallister government to refuse to release it. The public has a right to know what the investigation found, including what steps should be taken to ensure residents are given the care and dignity they deserve.
