Provincial intervention required at care homes By: Editorial Posted: 7:00 PM CST Friday, Nov. 6, 2020

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/11/2020 (1512 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Back-to-back majority mandates confirm Premier Brian Pallister’s government has found favour with most Manitobans for an agenda that often champions privatization for its efficiency and cost control. There are exceptions, however, when even a free-market-minded conservative government must take control of for-profit businesses because public safety is on the line. Long-term care homes owned by Revera Inc. are such exceptions.

A pandemic precedent was set early in the COVID-19 epidemic when Ontario and Quebec faced the type of care-home crises now afflicting several Manitoba institutions. Those provinces intervened and took over the most afflicted of their care homes, employing strategies the Manitoba government would be well advised to follow.

About 20 long-term care facilities in Manitoba have been infiltrated by COVID-19, but the three where the virus has claimed the most victims — Parkview Place, Maples Long Term Care Home and Heritage Lodge — are managed by Revera.

There have already been calls for governments to step in. Revera is owned by PSP Investments, a federal Crown corporation that controls pensions for 160,000 federal employees; after care-home outbreaks in Ontario, PSP made a public call for the federal government to transition ownership of Revera facilities to the provinces in which they operate.

A pandemic precedent was set early in the COVID-19 epidemic when Ontario and Quebec faced the type of care-home crises now afflicting several Manitoba institutions.

In a move that suggests desperation, Revera this week asked the Canadian Red Cross for help in its care facilities, including the ones in Manitoba.

The company, which currently faces dozens of lawsuits alleging negligent care, has been publicly criticized for its unsanitary facilities, poor infection controls, staff shortages and a failure to afford workers the time — and, often, the personal protective equipment — to care properly for vulnerable seniors.

It’s small consolation, but the Manitobans confined in these homes are not alone in their plight. Similar maltreatment was reported by residents of several for-profit care homes in Ontario and Quebec early in the pandemic. The difference is that governments in those other provinces took action, including calling in the military as an emergency measure.

In Quebec City, health authorities put a private seniors’ residence under government trusteeship after it was found only three employees were caring for more than 100 residents, some of whom were left for extended periods in soiled garments.

Ontario’s provincial government gave itself the power to temporarily take over management of long-term care homes unable to cope with COVID-19. If necessary, the province will install a manager, either an individual or a corporation such as a hospital. It also increased inspections and appointed a commission to investigate care-home tragedies.

Last Monday, the Ontario government promised to establish a new “gold standard” that would see nursing-home residents receive an average of four hours of direct care every day, saying the province will need to hire “tens of thousands” of additional personal support workers, registered practical nurses and registered nurses.

It will be necessary at a later time for Manitoba to have a broader discussion about whether for-profit care homes are an acceptable model in this province. A Toronto Star analysis found residents of for-profit care facilities are four times more likely to catch COVID-19 and four times more likely to die than residents in non-profit or government-run homes.

For now, though, the immediate imperative is for the province to intercede to protect at-risk residents. It’s not a matter of following a particular political party’s ideological agenda; it’s a matter of Manitobans taking care of Manitobans.