Page - 344 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

VULNERABLE344 Hugh Armstrong, and Ivy Bourgeault outline in Chapter E-1 of this book, have been a long-standing issue for staff—also predominantly women.22 In this context, the impact on long-term care residents of COVID-19 and government decisions around how to manage it were catastrophic. While “horror stories from Italy convinced authorities they had to free up room on [hospital] wards and in intensive care units for potential COVID-19 sufferers,”23 the obvious threat the virus posed in long-term care facilities did not seem to register. In Quebec, like elsewhere: The focus was on ensuring hospitals could manage their COVID- 19 caseloads… Officials opened as many hospital beds as possible by postponing elective surgeries and relocating patients to hotels or elder-care facilities. Instead, the virus struck hardest in those very facilities for seniors. The ensuing devastation came in a part of the system that had long been underfunded, understaffed, and packed with vulnerable people.24 Reports from across Canada suggest that, even as patients were being moved from hospitals to long-term care facilities without prior testing, long-term care residents infected with COVID-19 were being denied transfer to hospitals for treatment.25 Personal protective equipment and Ontario Health Coalition <www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/wp-content/uploads/ FINAL-LTC-REPORT.pdf>; Québec, Protecteur du citoyen, Mémoire du Protecteur du  citoyen  présenté  à  la  Commission  de  la  santé  et  des  services  sociaux (Québec: Protecteur du citoyen, 2013). 22. Pat Armstrong, Hugh Armstrong and Ivy Bourgeault, this volume, Chapter E-1; Canadian Health Coalition, supra note 19 at 11. 23. Blackwell, supra note 6 at A3; Grant & Ha, supra note 5. 24. Tu Thanh Ha, “How Quebec’s Long-term Care Homes Became Hotbeds for the COVID-19 Pandemic”, Globe  and  Mail (7 May 2020), online: <www.theglobeand- mail.com/canada/article-how-quebecs-long-term-care-homes-became-hotbeds- for-the-covid-1/>; Grant & Ha, supra note 5; Andrew MacLeod, “BC Seniors’ Homes Problems Aren’t New: The Virus Showed They Could be Deadly”, The  Tyee (27 April 2020), online: <thetyee.ca/News/2020/04/27/BC-Seniors- Homes-Problems-Arent-New/>. 25. Elizabeth Payne & Andrew Duffy, “No-transfer Practice at Some Long-term Care Homes Denies Residents Rights During Pandemic, Say Advocates”, Ottawa  Citizen (14 April 2020), online: <ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/ no-transfer-policy-at-some-long-term-care-homes-denies-residents-rights-dur- ing-pandemic-say-advocates/>; Terry Reith, “‘No Benefit’ to Sending Seniors ill with COVID-19 to Hospital, Some Nursing Homes Tell Loved Ones”, CBC News (3 April 2020), online: <www.cbc.ca/news/health/covid-19-long-term- care-1.5519657>; Editorial, “How Canada Gave a Pandemic Key to the Country’s