Page - 345 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
Image of the Page - 345 -
Text of the Page - 345 -
345Fault
Lines: COVID-19, the Charter, and Long-term Care
COVID-19 testing were heavily rationed and, in some cases unavail-
able, allowing the virus to spread rapidly among patients and staff,
and leading to deadly outbreaks in almost every province.26 As work-
ers fell ill or were quarantined, conditions for remaining staff and resi-
dents deteriorated further.27 Reports emerged of nurses caring for 20
to 30 residents without assistance, staff working back-to-back 12- and
16-hour shifts; and infected and non-infected residents sharing rooms.
By the time health authorities intervened in one Montréal home, “resi-
dents were found … unclothed, severely malnourished, dehydrated,
without their medication and left in their feces and urine…”28
Patient transfers from hospitals to long-term care facilities did
not end in Ontario until a month after the province declared a state of
emergency, with “hospital occupancy rates at a historic low … 69%,
down from 96% before the pandemic.”29 Only then did the province
Nursing Homes”, Globe and Mail (14 April 2020), online: <www.theglobeand-
mail.com/opinion/editorials/article-how-canada-gave-a-pandemic-the-key-
to-the-countrys-nursing-homes/>. For instance, as of April 17, 2020, only 22 of
899 nursing and retirement home residents with COVID-19 in Toronto were
being treated in hospital and, as of May 12, only 24 of 364 cases of COVID-19 in
long-term care in Alberta had been hospitalized; Grant & Ha, supra note 5.
26. Kathy Tomlinson & Grant Robertson, “It Took a Pandemic: Why Systemic
Deficiencies in Long-term Care Facilities Pose such a Danger to our Seniors”,
Globe and Mail (27 April 2020), online: <www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/
article-it-took-a-pandemic-why-systemic-deficiencies-in-long-term-care/>;
Rachel D’Amore, “Coronavirus: Hospital cleaners, admin workers need PPE too,
unions say”, Global News (7 April 2020), online: <globalnews.ca/news/6787770/
coronavirus-canada-protective-equipment-cleaners-admin-workers/>.
27. Grant & Ha, supra note 5; Murray Brewster & Vassy Kapelos, “Military Alleges
Horrific Conditions, Abuse in Pandemic-hit Ontario Nursing Homes”, CBC News
(26 May 2020), online: <www.cbc.ca/news/politics/long-term-care-pandemic-
covid-coronavirus-trudeau-1.5584960>.
28. Jillian Kestler-D’Amours, “Canada: How Quebec Elder Care Homes Became
Coronavirus Hotspots”, Al Jazeera (24 April 2020), online: <www.aljazeera.
com/indepth/features/canada-quebec-elder-care-homes-coronavirus-
hotspots-200423214537289.html>; Lorian Hardcastle, “Opinion: COVID-19 Lays
Bare Poor Conditions in Long-term Care Homes”, Edmonton Journal (24 April
2020), online: <edmontonjournal.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-covid-19-lays-
bare-poor-conditions-in-long-term-care-homes/>; Ha, supra note 24; Andrew
Rankin, “Nova Scotia Delayed Implementing Federal COVID-19 Guidelines for
Long-term Care Homes”, The Chronicle Herald (1 May 2020), online: <www.the-
chronicleherald.ca/news/provincial/ns-government-delayed-implementing-fed-
eral-covid-19-guidelines-for-long-term-care-homes-444709/>; Elizabeth Payne,
“Nurses Raise Concerns About Care Home”, OttawaÂ
Citizen (8 May 2020) A4.
29. Ha, supra note 24; Laura Stone, Karen Howlett & Les Perreaux, “Ontario Places
Pause on Transfers from Hospitals to Seniors’ Facilities; Quebec Issues Third Plea
for Military Aid”, GlobeÂ
andÂ
Mail (16 April 2020), online: <www.theglobeandmail.
VULNERABLE
The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Title
- VULNERABLE
- Subtitle
- The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Authors
- Vanessa MacDonnell
- Jane Philpott
- Sophie Thériault
- Sridhar Venkatapuram
- Publisher
- Ottawa Press
- Date
- 2020
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 9780776636429
- Size
- 15.2 x 22.8 cm
- Pages
- 648
- Categories
- Coronavirus
- International