January 18th, 2021
January 18th, 2021
QUEEN’S PARK — On Monday morning, the Doug Ford government posted a new legal requirement for health care workers to accept shifts providing relief in private retirement residences, raising concerns that Ford is hiding the extent of the growing crisis in those homes, according to NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.
The new regulation that came into force on Monday morning — already quietly signed by Ford and his cabinet. It requires that health care workers accept temporary shifts or assignments inside private retirement residences, as was previously the case only for long-term care homes.
“Retirement homes continue to be badly overlooked. The anguish and loss in long-term care is a terrible tragedy, and the government hasn’t been transparent. These folks are suffering in the dark,” said Horwath.
Ford has refused to engage in a hiring blitz to staff up like other provinces have done in long-term care. It’s troubling that the existing number of health care staff will now be stretched even thinner, and could be moved in-and-out of different congregate care facilities even more — a COVID-spreading practice that Ford has largely allowed to continue.
“If I were premier today, I would make every outbreak and the number of cases in retirement homes public. I would also implement in-home testing for residents and staff of retirement homes, put infection prevention and control experts in those homes, inspect them regularly, and speed up vaccinations of vulnerable people. I would provide paid sick days for every staff person in those homes, along with everyone else in the province, and I would give all those frontline workers pandemic pay,” said Horwath.
“This government has the power to do those things — the power to save lives. We should not be choosing to save a buck instead. We should not be making sure retirement home owners or their reputations are protected. We should be prioritizing the residents — they are loved, and they need protection, now.”