A “significant staffing challenge” has prompted a local personal care home to ask families to sit at their loved one’s bedsides to monitor their conditions while they grapple with COVID-19.
The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority said 42 of the 81 people living at Golden Links Lodge in St. Vital have tested positive for the novel coronavirus and staff can’t keep up.
“The WRHA has made arrangements with WFPS to provide immediate clinical support in the form of a two-person EMS team for the evening and through the night tonight,” the authority said Thursday evening in a press statement.
“Golden Links Lodge has tonight asked residents’ families to send one person — preferably the primary caregiver — to attend to the home and sit bedside with their loved one as a monitor, and to connect with staff if there is a change in their condition.”
The WRHA also made an exemption to allow staff members from other health care sectors to help at the home.
Community intravenous teams were also on-site Thursday evening, the authority said.
The personal care home has been dealing with an outbreak of COVID-19 since Nov. 11.
Long-term care homes, particularly the Maples Personal Care Home and Parkview Place — both operated by the Revera company — have come under fire in recent weeks after devastating outbreaks of COVID-19 have resulted in the deaths of a number of residents.
Controversy over whether the homes were properly staffed has resulted in a police investigation, a threatened class-action lawsuit by the family of a victim, and criticism from across Manitoba — generally aimed at Revera and the province.
At least 106 residents at Maples had tested positive for COVID-19 since the pandemic began and more than 22 have died.
Paramedics were called to the home on Nov. 6 when many residents were deteriorating rapidly.
Two died before paramedics arrived, three were transported to hospital, and others were treated on-site for hours.
Revera initially said it had 13 of the normal 19 health care aides working the evening shift last Friday.
An outbreak was declared this week in Opskwayak Cree Nation at the Rod McGillivary Memorial Care Home after all 28 residents at the facility tested positive for COVID-19.