Health-care experts and others are blaming the Quebec provincial government for the poor care at some seniors’ residences in the province, saying the province’s seniors residences have had staffing problems for years.
“Every worker was actually working at the limit of the norms,” said François Béland, professor at the Université de Montréal School of Public Health, Department of Health Management, Evaluation and Policy.
He said when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, that just made things worse.
“Because of the pandemic, the entire system was totally disorganized, more in some CHSLDs than in others,” Béland said.
Some residents at Maimonides Geriatrics Centre in Côte Saint-Luc and their families say problems became more glaring, and claim that even now, alleged neglect is costing lives.
“Given what exits here, there needs to be a serious decision as to how many workers you need to take care of the individuals on the floors,” noted resident Beverley Spanier.
Jeff Begley, president of the Fédération de la santé et des services sociaux (FSSS-CSN), which represents health and social service workers, complains staff can’t spend enough time with patients, and says the problem has grown in the last 10 years. One reason, he says, is fewer staff.
“Second of all, the patients are needing more care than they were needing before,” Begley said.
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In a statement to Global News, the provincial health ministry spokesperson pointed out that, “It is the responsibility of the establishments to provide sufficient staff to meet the needs of the residents accommodated. Professional care-patient ratios are one of the various courses of action analyzed that can help reduce the workload.”
Begley agrees that staff -patient ratio needs addressing, but pointed out there’s just one problem.
“There’s no provincial guideline,” he told Global News. “That’s part of the problem, and it fluctuates.”
In the statement, the health ministry pointed out it has made moves to improve staffing, pointing to the almost 10,000 new patient attendants they’ve hired since last fall.
“But we don’t know how many new staff that represents,” Béland pointed out. “It may only be staff that’s replaced.”
He also takes issue with a policy paper the government produced just weeks ago which outlines objectives for long-term care. For him, there aren’t concrete objectives and key things are missing.
“The money, the people, the training — nothing on what’s really important right now,” he insisted.
He added that any plan for senior care needs to include all aspects of health care. But he’s not optimistic that a concrete plan is coming, saying there have been other policy papers over the years with little or no action.
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