I am incensed by the current ploy by the Ministry of Long Term Care to try to pretend that COVID-19 is to blame for the appalling conditions in our nursing homes.
Yes, many homes have been hit with devastating outbreaks, but the conditions our loved ones have to endure on a daily basis are old news. COVID-19 is not the reason that our seniors receive insufficient care or emotional support. It is not the reason that someone right now is sitting in a dirty diaper or waiting for help that doesn’t come.
This has been happening for years due to under-staffing, insufficient training, poor management, ineffective monitoring by the ministry and chronic under-funding by successive provincial governments.
My mother was in care for 17 years. She was left soiled causing chronic infections, bruised, had fractures of “undetermined origin”, found with her face crusted in dried food and denied any semblance of human dignity. These things had nothing to do with any outbreak; they were everyday life in long-term care.
The managing corporations will never admit wrongdoing, it is too easy to blame the helpless. Filing a complaint on the hotline doesn’t take the 48 hours claimed by the minister. It takes months, and nothing changes.
Mr. Ford is correct; the system is broken. Sweeping it under a COVID-19 rug is not going to fix it.
Sherri Moyer,
Centre Wellington