Oakview Place staff restructuring leads to neglect, aides allege

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This article was published 05/10/2023 (736 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Staff at a for-profit Winnipeg long-term care home say a restructuring by management has created a shortage of health-care aides so severe senior residents are left in bed for hours, forced to skip baths and are even dying alone.

Two health-care aides at Extendicare Oakview Place spoke with the Free Press on the condition of anonymity.

Both said the Ontario-based company had health-care aides rebid for their jobs last month, with the goal of reducing the company’s reliance on private agency staff that had been brought on during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some staff members’ hours were reduced to part-time or less and others quit to find more stable work in the public sector, the sources said. There are now around 25 per cent fewer caregivers on the floor during the day, they added.

“We anticipated being short-staffed and people not being given the care that they deserve or need. When it came into effect two weekends ago, it was a lot worse than what we expected,” one impacted health-care aide told the Free Press.

“As a result of it, multiple people have died without anyone being there to comfort them while they pass on, which is one of our policies. We very strongly oppose the neglect happening in our care home and this is all due to our corporate putting in position cuts.”

The Ness Avenue facility has 245 residents.

Health-care aides have been forced to triage care for the most urgent concerns, resulting in baths being skipped at times and end-of-life care being strained, the sources said.

“We had one resident that was found (dead) with the call button system in her hand… because we were so short-staffed that when she called, there was no one available because someone (else) had fallen and people were getting care done,” one aide said. “No one went to the call when she pressed it, when possibly, she could have been saved or at least assisted when she passed.

“Residents aren’t going to get the companionship that they need within a care home, and all because of corporate wanting to make more money.”

Another veteran health-care aide staffer at Oakview Place said there are around 25 staff on the floor during the day, when there should be at least 35. At its busiest, health-care aides could get less than 10 minutes of one-on-one time with a resident daily, they said.

When workers who had been with Oakview Place for decades were forced to rebid for their jobs, it created “chaos” on the floor, the source said.

Staff that remain have often been forced to supplement their income elsewhere.

“(Hours) were cut so much, who can live off $500 bi-weekly? Some of us are single parents… We tried to explain that to management at meetings when the people from Ontario came in, but they didn’t care,” the aide said.

“They told us that they would put us somewhere else, at another Extendicare to top-up our hours, which never happened. They promised us stuff and they didn’t honour any of it.”

A spokesperson for Extendicare Inc. said the company was working “closely with our team members to ensure they have the supports they need to deliver the care residents and families expect of us.”

“On every shift, schedules are built to ensure staffing levels fully meet the provincial standard of care, which is consistent across personal care homes in the province,” the spokesperson said Thursday in an email.

“We encourage anyone — team members, families or others — with specific concerns to bring them to our attention, so we can take immediate action.”

Last month, Extendicare had suggested staff restructuring for health-care aides and nurses at Tuxedo Villa, Oakview Place and Vista Park Lodge in Winnipeg, Red River Place in Selkirk, and Hillcrest Place in Brandon.

The Manitoba Nurses Union decried the plan and Extendicare later announced it was holding off on moving nurse shifts.

MNU president Darlene Jackson said some nurses had resigned anyway and was not shocked to hear quality of care has reportedly been affected.

“Members of the nurses union, members of CUPE who are the support (workers), all had concerns that this was not going to be good for residence care,” she said. “So I’m not surprised at all that they are seeing a decline in the ability to provide care to residents.”

Staff at Oakview Place and Maples long-term care homes voted in favour of a strike mandate Sept. 21, through the Canadian Union of Public Employees, seeking improved pay and benefits.

A CUPE spokesperson said the union was “extremely concerned” about the staffing changes.

“If Extendicare wants to keep the employees they have, they need to start improving working conditions and the offer on the table, not the opposite, which is what we are seeing at Oakview Place.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca