PCs failure to fix long-term care, make care better key ballot box issue for Ottawa LTC staff

OTTAWA, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The COVID pandemic exposed the gaps in care and staffing in Ontario long-term care and Doug Ford promised to fix things, but he hasn’t delivered, said Ottawa – Laurier Manor front-line care staff at a media conference today.

“How a government treats our most vulnerable and the workers who provide care for them, says a lot about their priorities,” said Ian Rayment, a registered practical nurse (RPN) and president of CUPE Local 2770 at Laurier Manor. “It’s clear to those of us who work in LTC, that improving residents’ wellbeing by ensuring adequate staffing levels, isn’t even on their radar. Doug Ford and his government have failed vulnerable LTC residents and the care staff who support them and their families. There is no meaningful workforce strategy to deal with staffing shortages and attracting and retaining new front-line care staff to make care better.”

Before voters in Ottawa head to the polls in a few days, Rayment urged that they take a close and critical look at what the Ford government promised to do and what it has failed to deliver on when it comes to care for vulnerable seniors.

“Despite passing legislation for a daily resident care standard of four hours a while ago, we are sadly, not there yet,” said Rayment. Understaffing continues to be the norm and work loads are increasing. To make matters worse, at Laurier Manor, Extendicare is having severe problems with a pay system program that often doesn’t pay front-line staff correctly.

“We have money taken away, hours paid are not right, and from one week to the next we are guessing if there will be enough pay on our pay cheques to buy groceries and pay rent. While this may sound insignificant for modest wage earners like us, this is a big deal. Many new staff, leave – some before they even pass probation because they need stability in their weekly pay,” said Rayment.

In addition to not delivering on a four-hour daily care standard, under the Ford PCs, the waitlist for long-term care in Ontario has doubled over the past 10 years. It is expected to grow, likely surpassing 50,000 people in 2025. According to Health Quality Ontario, in the next 10 years, based on seniors’ population growth, the demand for long-term care is projected to increase by an average of 38%. But in Greater Ottawa, the demand for LTC is 43%. That’s 5% higher than the provincial average. People waited 246 days to get into LTC in the Champlain region that includes Ottawa.

“That too, is above the Ontario-wide average of 201 days. Only a fraction of the new 30,000 LTC beds the PC’s promised by 2028 have materialized. At the rate they are going, it will take 125 years to add that many beds,” says Rayment.

Regardless of who forms government following the election, LTC workers who are members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) are calling for the following positive changes:

• Resident standards of care in long-term care must be lifted to the four hours of care per resident per day, this has been legislated but it is not yet been implemented.
• Bed capacity must also be increased much more quickly.
• More work in LTC must be full-time.
• Pay for all job categories in LTC must increase to retain staff on the front-lines.

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