National standards needed for care homes

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/03/2021 (1831 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It seems likely most Canadians would agree this country has failed to provide adequate care for seniors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A growing number of younger people are being affected by the coronavirus and its more transmissible variants, but seniors are the ones who have been hit hardest from Day 1.

During the first wave of the pandemic, more than 80 per cent of Canada’s COVID-19 deaths occurred in long-term care facilities. It was deemed a national humiliation last summer when the military was ordered into care homes in Ontario and Quebec after the system became overwhelmed.

The latest numbers are beyond stark: 42 per cent of the country’s long-term care homes have been hit by the coronavirus, with 10 per cent of cases and 69 per cent of deaths occurring in long-term care, according to recent data from the National Institute on Ageing at Ryerson University.

This crisis in care has ignited a ferocious — and ultimately futile — debate over whether it’s time to eliminate private for-profit care homes, which have seen a disproportionate number of deaths in their facilities.

Multiple studies over the past six months have shown that for-profit care facilities — which account for just 28 per cent of the nursing homes in Canada — are likelier to see more extensive COVID-19 outbreaks and more deaths. In Manitoba, recent analyses found for-profit care homes had higher death rates, while accounting for only one-quarter of the nursing home beds in the province.

Everyone agrees something needs to be done — but no one seems to agree on precisely what, or on who needs to do it.

Last Monday, the federal NDP tabled a motion in the House of Commons calling on the government to transform for-profit homes to not-for-profit operations by 2030. It also urged the government to work with provinces and territories to stop licensing new for-profit homes.

“The federal government does not have the legal authority to do what the NDP is proposing,” Seniors Minister Deb Schulte responded in a blunt tweet.

It seems a waste of time for lawmakers to debate the merits of abandoning one model of care (for-profit) in favour of another model (not-for-profit) when that change would be all but impossible under the current health system. The Liberal government has repeatedly pointed out that long-term care is not covered by the Canada Health Act, meaning it is under the jurisdiction of each province and territory.

If politics is the art of the possible, then it makes little sense to focus on what appears to be a non-starter — taking the “profit” out of long-term care — and much more sense to focus instead on an achievable goal — making all care homes better.

Ottawa does not have a magic wand to fix the serious failings in long-term care, but it does have the power to convene a national task force that would bring together all the key players — provincial and territorial leaders, care home operators and health experts — to find a solution to a crisis that should never have been allowed to unfold.

As the NDP and the Liberals have suggested, that solution must include the creation of national standards for everything from staffing ratios and hours of work to certification and qualifications for staff. Funding for homes should be tied to clear evidence they are meeting those rigorous standards.

It won’t be a quick fix and it won’t come cheap, but when the lives of Canada’s most vulnerable population are on the line, money isn’t the issue.