More than a year after the COVID-19 pandemic unleashed death and despair into Ontario's long-term care homes, the situation is gradually improving.
But there is still a crisis looming for the future of long-term care in the province. That crisis? Not having enough staff.
That was one of the issues defined this week by Donna Duncan, CEO of the Ontario Long-Term Care Association (OLTCA). She hosted an online technical media briefing Thursday to discuss capacity issues and partnerships with hospitals.
Duncan noted that on May 19 last year, Ontario was a much different place especially when it came to the situation in long-term care homes.
"We had 124 homes in outbreak. We had over 2,400 active (COVID-19) resident cases and over 1,500 active staff cases," said Duncan.
"Today, we have 34 homes in outbreak, 39 active resident cases and 98 active staff cases," she added.
"This pandemic has really taken a toll on our broader health human resources (HR) and we would argue that while we were out in January 2020 talking about the HR emergency in long-term care it really is clear to us that this is a health system challenge. It is a national challenge and it is a global challenge.”
Duncan said that in a recent phone call with other care agencies around the world, there was discussion that immigration might help solve the problem. Duncan said that wasn't necessarily the answer.
"There are very few countries right now that are ready to face the needs of their aging population.”
She said that is especially the case for so many health care professionals, physicians, nurses and other skilled professionals who are part of the Baby Boomer generation and are ready to retire if they haven't already done so.
She said pandemic exhaustion is another factor.
"We need to be planning for that attrition as well as planning for potential attrition due to burnout as a result of what people have been through over the last months," said Duncan.
She said she was pleased that the Ontario government has announced steps to introduce more training for personal support workers (PSWs) and registered nursing staff.
She said it was also important that the government recognizes that building up new staff takes time and resources. But Duncan also said that doesn't necessarily mean there is a lot of time.
"It takes four years to educate a nurse. It takes double that to educate a specialist."
Duncan added that discussions are needed with long-term care partners across Canada, with educators and health-care agencies to resolve the issue.
"But we do want to say there is a crisis looming in terms of our broader workforce and our ability to meet the demands of our system," said Duncan.
She added that the problem is not going away anytime soon and this should be a priority for all levels of government in Canada.
Other issues the OLTCA is working on currently include having more Ontario hospital patients in Alternate Level of Care (ALC) situations being moved out to get care in LTC homes. Another issue as summer is approaching said Duncan is the need to have better air-conditioning facilities.
She said this could be an issue in older homes and whether those homes can handle a larger electrical load, but the fact is the situation will have to be solved to be in line with new provincial regulations, she said.
Len Gillis is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter at Sudbury.com. He covers health care in Northern Ontario.
