Health-care workers rally for long-term care funding

THUNDER BAY – Provincial funding needs to thoroughly address funding shortfalls in long-term care homes, say frontline health-care workers.

About two dozen people gathered outside the constituency office of Thunder Bay-Superior North MPP Michael Gravelle on a frigid Monday morning, protesting what they deem inadequate provincial funding for long-term care.

Suzanne Pulice, vice-president of Unifor Local 229, which represents 3,000 employees across Northwestern Ontario working in a number of publicly funded health-care positions, said she is urging the Ontario Liberal government to reinstate minimum care standards for patients living in the homes.

“We’re looking to bring that back. We’ve been lobbying for many years on that issue,” she said. “What we’re looking at is four hours, per person, per day of hands on care which would just provide adequate care for individuals in long-term care.”

With Thunder Bay facing an aging population, Pulice said the local wait times are some of the longest in Ontario.

Those issues are being compounded by the consolidation of two city-run long-term care, Dawson Court and Grandview Lodge, into the expanded Hogarth Riverview Manor, which is run by St. Joseph’s Care Group.

Pulice said the staff ratios previously were one worker for eight patients and now it’s closer to one staff member responsible for 10 or 11 patients.

“They were having a hard time and struggling previously, now it’s only going to be that much worse,” she said.

“Our seniors go into these facilities, they’re not going in healthy. They’re going in with all kinds of ailments, with their ambulation they’re either in wheelchairs or walkers. Two out of three residents who go in have some form of dementia. They’re not independent anymore and all their needs are met by the people looking after them.

Thunder Bay Health Coalition chair Jules Tupker said the funding provided in long-term care homes not only in Thunder Bay but all across the province is insufficient.

“There’s a huge concern about the care that’s being provided in long-term care,” Tupker said. “There is not enough time spent by the workers to look after the residents in those homes.”

It sends a message the government doesn’t care about seniors, he said.

“It’s absolutely obscene. When you see what those people are going through, people that are 80 years old and have given their whole life to this community and they end up in a home with an assumption they’re going to be taken care of and they’re not,” he said.

“They’re getting the bare minimum services and it’s not appropriate.”

Gravelle was scheduled to speak at the rally but instead was in Nipigon to deal with the aftermath of the Nipigon River Bridge closure. As of the early afternoon, he was not available to comment on the rally.