QUEEN’S PARK — Kenora-Rainy River NDP MPP Sara Campbell issued a statement following news that the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care issued a cease of admissions at Rainycrest Long-Term Care Home:
“Today, we learned of the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care’s decision to place a cease order on new admissions at the Rainycrest Long Term Care Home in Fort Frances. It’s heartbreaking to think about what residents at Rainycrest have been put through, from substandard infection control and wound care to violence and dangerous living conditions. This most recent development is very concerning for patients and their families across the northwest, who rely on these long-term care home services. Once again, the abysmal state of health care for seniors and those requiring extended support in this province is on display. This determination to stop admitting new patients to this care facility is part of a mounting record of neglect from the Ministry to fix this broken health care system. Frankly, this is simply no way to treat our seniors – the people that built this province –but these conditions are all too common at long-term care homes throughout the province.
It’s truly disappointing that Kathleen Wynne continues to deny the crisis in our long-term care homes, neglecting to launch an inquiry to uncover these issues and fix them as they are revealed. Now, Fort Frances families have even fewer options for care – it shouldn’t have come to this and doesn’t need to be this way. In Kenora, access to long-term care beds is almost non-existent. An example of this is Birchwood Terrace, designated with one respite bed in 2016/2017. Given that there was a wait list for Birchwood long-term care beds and capacity pressures at the local hospital, the one respite bed was converted into a long-stay bed to meet the current growing needs for long-term care.
Again, this is an unacceptable reality that so many residents face in long-term care. Patients and their families need to have the confidence that they will be well looked after and that high-quality care standards will be met across the province.
Proper staffing, training, and programs that help staff deal with violent residents — often those coping with dementia – help everyone. Families deserve a premier that listens, puts their concerns at the heart of every decision and is ready to get to work on overhauling the troubled system that thousands of seniors still rely on. Andrea Horwath and the NDP will launch a find-and-fix public inquiry into long-term care to uncover these issues and start fixing them. We’ll look at systemic issues like funding, quality of care, staffing levels, enforcement, and inspection — and we’ll deliver change for the better.”
