As COVID-19 continues to take its deadliest toll on long-term care facilities, Ontario and Quebec are struggling hard to contain outbreaks — while other provinces like British Columbia have managed to keep infections under control.
As COVID-19 continues to sweep through long-term care facilities, Ontario and Quebec are struggling hard to contain outbreaks — while British Columbia and other provinces have managed to keep infections under control.
Experts say that’s because B.C. took swift, coordinated and decisive actions to stop the transmission of the virus, such as providing adequate protective gear and financially supporting front-line staff to restrict their movement between sites.
There have been 111 deaths in long-term care homes in B.C., compared to more than 2,500 in Quebec and 1,500 in Ontario.
This week, the military issued separate reports on the conditions inside 30 homes in Quebec and Ontario where more than 1,600 Canadian Armed Forces members have been deployed to assist in the crisis.
In five Ontario long-term care homes, the military reported incidents of neglect, aggressive treatment toward residents and cases of residents being improperly fed, left in soiled clothing or going unbathed for weeks. There were also reports of insect infestation and the smell of rotting food.
The situation appears less dire in the 25 homes where the military is deployed in Quebec — yet even there the military reported improper use of protective equipment and staffing shortages.
Watch: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calls military aid for long-term care homes a ‘stop-gap’
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke with reporters during a United Nations web cast on Thursday. 0:30
Pat Armstrong, a sociology professor at York University who led the 10-year international project Re-imagining Long-term Residential Care, said the military has drawn attention to deficiencies that existed long before the pandemic hit.
She said one important way B.C. limited the spread of the virus was by taking over staffing — ordering that personal support workers each work in only one facility, instead of multiple locations. Wages were boosted to compensate for the loss of second jobs.
“They’ve had fewer deaths and fewer outbreaks, I think primarily because they acted so quickly and in the way they did to take over the employment of these people in long-term care. And they stopped extra people from coming into the homes. That was another factor,” Armstrong said.
Fewer four-bed units
Another factor