The leader of the provincial NDP is calling on the Ford government to immediately make major changes and investments in long-term care homes and home care to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Andrea Horwath says several reports last year showed there was an under-staffing crisis in long term care facilities and the current pandemic only makes the problem worse.
Horwath says to start with, PSW’s need to make at least $22 an hour to bring more people into the field.
“We need to see these jobs be more attractive to attract people into them. I mean it’s a hard job. We are asking those folks on the front lines, that work in long term care and in home care, to put their own health at risk. I mean these folks are warriors.”
She stresses “Let’s make that job a well paid job. Give it the dignity and the respect that it deserves in terms of remuneration and that will help the government to attract more workers into those positions so people aren’t having to take double shifts.”
The NDP states that since the pandemic started, there have been at least 36 outbreaks in long term care homes in the province.
Calls from the Official Opposition:
-Aggressively recruiting home care and long-term care staff
-Mandate that more staff be scheduled on each shift in each long-term care home
-Immediately increase salaries for staff to a minimum of $22/hr in order to retain and attract workers, including Personal Support Workers (PSW’s) and Registered Practical Nurses (RPN’s)
-Assign each staff member to one facility only, and ensure they have full-time hours, to eliminate the potential for staff to transmit COVID-19 to other facilities, ending all exceptions
-Standardize visitor politics province-wide to prevent COVID-transmission from visitors and volunteers, seeking Public Health determination on the safest policy
-Mandate that home care workers wear personal protective equipment-including gloves and surgical masks-for every home visit, to avoid transmission from one vulnerable client to another, and mandate long-term care staff wear PPE any time they’re with residents.
-Create a caregiver fund to support families that choose to care for their loved one at home
Watch @AndreaHorwath call on the Ford govt to immediately make major investments in long-term care and home care to stop #COVID19. https://t.co/pfL23Ks8Oh #COVID19Ontario
— Ontario NDP (@OntarioNDP) April 7, 2020
