It was a shock because I had worked there briefly in 2019, and I have to wonder how many of the individuals I met there have since succumbed to the disease. I don’t want to lay blame here or point fingers (well, maybe a little) because I know how hard the staff work keeping residents comfortable, and the vast majority of the front-line workers are dedicated and caring individuals. But the news report reminded me about the early months of the pandemic when those returning cruise ships were quarantined at dock, with some reports labelling them “death ships”, and where the coronavirus inexorably spread among the close-quartered and captive vacationers.
So, where are we with a growing population of seniors needing 24/7 care, 64% having some form of dementia, and highly vulnerable to being exposed to Covid-19?
The only thing I will say is that I have some reservations about privately run, for profit LTC homes. I think the province and/or non-profits should be running them, with greater scrutiny and regulation. Also, I don't know how wise it is, or fair, if the system is downloaded onto cash-strapped municipalities. And provincial governments should not have to request military personnel to help with staff shortages, as has happened in Ontario and Quebec. That surely should be a wake-up call. This is part of a larger conversation, but the question needs to be raised: is this the best way we can provide our elders with the care they need? We see the pitfalls in having large numbers of vulnerable seniors segregated in close quarters—not only exposing them more readily to diseases, but also in terms of general care and support. But this is the system we currently have and will continue to have for some time to come.
In Ontario, approximately 115,000 people live in 626 licensed long-term care homes. 58% are private, for profit; 24% are non-profit/charitable and 16% of the homes are run by municipalities. There is currently a $500 million class-action lawsuit launched against "more than one hundred" for-profit, non-profit and municipal LTC homes in the province, alleging “gross negligence" in their response to the coronavirus. Their lawyers claim that residence operators (and the provincial government is also named in the suit) failed to provide adequate PPE supplies, adequate staffing, and disease-prevention protocols, which resulted in needless hospitalizations and deaths. The claimants state that over 50% of the provinces LTC residences did not have outbreaks, which is evidence that the disease could indeed be managed if proper equipment, staffing and care provision protocols were put in place. (For example, the early restriction of visitors to the residences, something that had been done in other countries like China, Spain and Italy, in the early weeks of the pandemic. And IIRC, in the 2002 SARS outbreak in Toronto, lockdowns occurred fairly quickly in hospitals and LTCs.)
Death rates for infected seniors are shocking: 7.4% ages 60-69; 18% ages 70-79 and 70.3% over the age of 80 died of the disease as of Jan. 29/21. Over 95% of the approximately 20,000 deaths in Canada were people over the age of 60, with men slightly more susceptible to the disease than women up until the age of 80, when more women than men died. This is a disease of the elderly, and it behooves us to learn all we can about how to deal with such disease outbreaks, because the next time a coronavirus or an H1N1 flu comes our way—and they will—other age cohorts may be at risk, with disastrous consequences.
‘Nuff for now, Jake.
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