Nursing home workers on the front lines of the pandemic will finally be able to testify in confidence before an Ontario government commission looking into the deadly effects of COVID-19 in long-term care.
The change was approved by the province Tuesday following a request from the commission, which had been approached by families and nurses with concerns that recounting their experiences could lead to repercussions.
“We want to make sure that people have a chance to tell their story and certainly we need to hear from the personal support workers and the staff within the homes,” said Long-Term Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton.
“It’s important that they have the opportunity to do that in confidence.”
Premier Doug Ford created the commission to look into the devastating impact of COVID-19, including horrors exposed by Canadian Armed Forces medical teams sent into a handful of homes where staffing fell as low as 20 per cent because of illness and absenteeism.
A horrific report from the military exposed stories of residents fed lying down to the point of choking, or malnourished because there weren’t enough employees to help feed them, left in soiled diapers for hours or in bed for weeks, and crying for help that took too long to come.
Almost 2,000 nursing home residents and eight staff have died from COVID-19 while about 6,700 residents and 2,800 staff have been infected to date, with cases continuing to rise.
Critics said the anonymity is long overdue for nurses, personal support workers, other staff, residents and their families who want to give the commission the straight goods on what happened in the hardest-hit nursing homes.
“There’s a real fear of reprisal,” said president Vicki McKenna of the Ontario Nurses’ Association, which recently presented the commission with video testimony of unidentified three members who caught COVID.
Two of them became so ill they ended up in intensive care on ventilators to breathe.
“They talked about trying to care for people, trying to do the very best for them, seeing their health failing, people dying,” McKenna told the Star.
“They talked about fighting for personal protective equipment, fighting to cohort residents in disputes with their employer about moving residents who are ill away from residents who were not. They talked about the hours and the shifts they were working, multiple 12 and 18 and 24 hour shifts. And they got sick.”
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said confidential testimony is a “good first step’ but called for improved protection for whistleblowers in long-term care making it easier for staff to “sound the alarm bells” when a nursing home is in crisis.
“What this at least does in the interim is give folks a bit of comfort that they can be honest about what they’ve been dealing with as workers,” she added.
The ability to testify confidentially is “absolutely essential” to the commission learning exactly what it was like on the front lines of long-term care as the highly contagious virus swept through nursing homes last spring, said Green Leader Mike Schreiner.
McKenna said confidentiality should have been granted immediately when the commission was created, as was the case with the SARS commission almost 20 years ago.
The move follows interim recommendations from the long-term-care commission on Friday that the government agree to provide four hours of hands-on care to nursing home residents, up from an average of 2.75 hours now.
Fullerton and Ford have not committed to that standard but the minister said she will vote in favour of a bill from New Democrat MPP Teresa Armstrong (London-Fanshawe) to do just that when it goes to second reading in the legislature Wednesday, which could lead to be being sent to committee for further study.
But Fullerton would not commit to supporting the bill if it comes to a third and final reading, suggesting more staffing would have to be in place.
“That depends on when that happens,” she added. “There has to be a concerted effort, which is ongoing, to create the attraction to long-term care.”
She has promised a staffing plan by the end of the year.
Rob Ferguson is a Toronto-based reporter covering Ontario politics for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @robferguson1
Nursing home workers on the front lines of the pandemic will finally be able to testify in confidence before an Ontario government commission looking into the deadly effects of COVID-19 in long-term care.
The change was approved by the province Tuesday following a request from the commission, which had been approached by families and nurses with concerns that recounting their experiences could lead to repercussions.
“We want to make sure that people have a chance to tell their story and certainly we need to hear from the personal support workers and the staff within the homes,” said Long-Term Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton.
“It’s important that they have the opportunity to do that in confidence.”
Premier Doug Ford created the commission to look into the devastating impact of COVID-19, including horrors exposed by Canadian Armed Forces medical teams sent into a handful of homes where staffing fell as low as 20 per cent because of illness and absenteeism.
A horrific report from the military exposed stories of residents fed lying down to the point of choking, or malnourished because there weren’t enough employees to help feed them, left in soiled diapers for hours or in bed for weeks, and crying for help that took too long to come.
Almost 2,000 nursing home residents and eight staff have died from COVID-19 while about 6,700 residents and 2,800 staff have been infected to date, with cases continuing to rise.
Critics said the anonymity is long overdue for nurses, personal support workers, other staff, residents and their families who want to give the commission the straight goods on what happened in the hardest-hit nursing homes.
“There’s a real fear of reprisal,” said president Vicki McKenna of the Ontario Nurses’ Association, which recently presented the commission with video testimony of unidentified three members who caught COVID.
Two of them became so ill they ended up in intensive care on ventilators to breathe.
“They talked about trying to care for people, trying to do the very best for them, seeing their health failing, people dying,” McKenna told the Star.
“They talked about fighting for personal protective equipment, fighting to cohort residents in disputes with their employer about moving residents who are ill away from residents who were not. They talked about the hours and the shifts they were working, multiple 12 and 18 and 24 hour shifts. And they got sick.”
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said confidential testimony is a “good first step’ but called for improved protection for whistleblowers in long-term care making it easier for staff to “sound the alarm bells” when a nursing home is in crisis.
“What this at least does in the interim is give folks a bit of comfort that they can be honest about what they’ve been dealing with as workers,” she added.
The ability to testify confidentially is “absolutely essential” to the commission learning exactly what it was like on the front lines of long-term care as the highly contagious virus swept through nursing homes last spring, said Green Leader Mike Schreiner.
McKenna said confidentiality should have been granted immediately when the commission was created, as was the case with the SARS commission almost 20 years ago.
The move follows interim recommendations from the long-term-care commission on Friday that the government agree to provide four hours of hands-on care to nursing home residents, up from an average of 2.75 hours now.
Fullerton and Ford have not committed to that standard but the minister said she will vote in favour of a bill from New Democrat MPP Teresa Armstrong (London-Fanshawe) to do just that when it goes to second reading in the legislature Wednesday, which could lead to be being sent to committee for further study.
But Fullerton would not commit to supporting the bill if it comes to a third and final reading, suggesting more staffing would have to be in place.
“That depends on when that happens,” she added. “There has to be a concerted effort, which is ongoing, to create the attraction to long-term care.”
She has promised a staffing plan by the end of the year.
Rob Ferguson is a Toronto-based reporter covering Ontario politics for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @robferguson1
Nursing home workers on the front lines of the pandemic will finally be able to testify in confidence before an Ontario government commission looking into the deadly effects of COVID-19 in long-term care.
The change was approved by the province Tuesday following a request from the commission, which had been approached by families and nurses with concerns that recounting their experiences could lead to repercussions.
“We want to make sure that people have a chance to tell their story and certainly we need to hear from the personal support workers and the staff within the homes,” said Long-Term Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton.
“It’s important that they have the opportunity to do that in confidence.”
Premier Doug Ford created the commission to look into the devastating impact of COVID-19, including horrors exposed by Canadian Armed Forces medical teams sent into a handful of homes where staffing fell as low as 20 per cent because of illness and absenteeism.
A horrific report from the military exposed stories of residents fed lying down to the point of choking, or malnourished because there weren’t enough employees to help feed them, left in soiled diapers for hours or in bed for weeks, and crying for help that took too long to come.
Almost 2,000 nursing home residents and eight staff have died from COVID-19 while about 6,700 residents and 2,800 staff have been infected to date, with cases continuing to rise.
Critics said the anonymity is long overdue for nurses, personal support workers, other staff, residents and their families who want to give the commission the straight goods on what happened in the hardest-hit nursing homes.
“There’s a real fear of reprisal,” said president Vicki McKenna of the Ontario Nurses’ Association, which recently presented the commission with video testimony of unidentified three members who caught COVID.
Two of them became so ill they ended up in intensive care on ventilators to breathe.
“They talked about trying to care for people, trying to do the very best for them, seeing their health failing, people dying,” McKenna told the Star.
“They talked about fighting for personal protective equipment, fighting to cohort residents in disputes with their employer about moving residents who are ill away from residents who were not. They talked about the hours and the shifts they were working, multiple 12 and 18 and 24 hour shifts. And they got sick.”
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said confidential testimony is a “good first step’ but called for improved protection for whistleblowers in long-term care making it easier for staff to “sound the alarm bells” when a nursing home is in crisis.
“What this at least does in the interim is give folks a bit of comfort that they can be honest about what they’ve been dealing with as workers,” she added.
The ability to testify confidentially is “absolutely essential” to the commission learning exactly what it was like on the front lines of long-term care as the highly contagious virus swept through nursing homes last spring, said Green Leader Mike Schreiner.
McKenna said confidentiality should have been granted immediately when the commission was created, as was the case with the SARS commission almost 20 years ago.
The move follows interim recommendations from the long-term-care commission on Friday that the government agree to provide four hours of hands-on care to nursing home residents, up from an average of 2.75 hours now.
Fullerton and Ford have not committed to that standard but the minister said she will vote in favour of a bill from New Democrat MPP Teresa Armstrong (London-Fanshawe) to do just that when it goes to second reading in the legislature Wednesday, which could lead to be being sent to committee for further study.
But Fullerton would not commit to supporting the bill if it comes to a third and final reading, suggesting more staffing would have to be in place.
“That depends on when that happens,” she added. “There has to be a concerted effort, which is ongoing, to create the attraction to long-term care.”
She has promised a staffing plan by the end of the year.
Rob Ferguson is a Toronto-based reporter covering Ontario politics for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @robferguson1