Saskatoon– An hour before Premier Scott Moe and Saskatchewan Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab announced more COVID-19 public health restrictions on Dec. 14, New Democratic Party Leader Ryan Meili was calling on the province to call in the military to assist in long-term care, and to not continue its “wait-and-see” approach.
Those restrictions included essentially banning most social gatherings in the home and further retail restrictions. They were announced three days before the initially planned Dec. 17.
In response to the Dec. 14 COVID-19 announcement, Meili released the following statement: “The Sask. Party government’s approach to the second wave of COVID-19 is chaotic. It’s never clear what standards the government is using for decisions, what the next steps will be, or even when those decisions will be made. This leads to confusion as families are left scrambling to keep each other safe and make ends meet. Today’s announcement shows that the government’s half measures announced in November have failed but it’s clear they plan to carry down the path of too little too late.
“We have schools closing early while bars and restaurants remain open. Family gatherings have been effectively reduced to zero - unless you meet for drinks or dinner or rent a hall. Small businesses are left with the worst of both worlds: told to stay open while their customers are urged to stay home. The new retail measures do not come into effect until Christmas Day, when they will have the least effect on the spread of the virus. One wonders why, if these measures aren’t necessary now at the busiest time of the year, Scott Moe sees them as necessary at all?,” Meili asked.
He continued, “There is nothing that was announced today that could not have been put in effect weeks earlier, when a targeted circuit breaker could have actually had a tangible impact on the spread of COVID-19 in our communities. This government’s chaotic, wait-and-see approach has led to lockdown measures that are at once more severe and less effective.
“The new case totals, while growing less quickly than before, are simply more than our health care system can manage. No new measures were announced to protect our loved ones in long-term care facilities when there are 32 active outbreaks and we are seeing tragic loss of life that touches so many families. Because of this government’s delay, the new measures will not only fail to bring our numbers down, they will have a long lasting impact on our quality of life.”
Prior to the government announcement, Meili held a press conference from Saskatoon over Zoom with Seniors Critic Matt Love, MLA for Saskatoon Eastview, reiterating concerns regarding long-term care facilities, especially ones where there are up to four patients in one room, with one washroom shared among them.
Love said the Saskatchewan government should be calling in the Canadian Armed Forces to provide relief to overworked healthcare providers in long-term care facilities, something he said the government had no intention of doing.
Love said, “Today, we're calling on Sask. Party government to reverse course, and to make the call to the federal government to ensure that military personnel can be on hand to support the efforts that are happening right now long-term care and to save lives; essentially to save lives of Saskatchewan seniors and other folks living in long term care.
“We know that staff with long term care are just completely overwhelmed. And we know that increasing community, transmission up COVID-19 makes outbreaks some long-term care much more likely.”
Love called upon the Saskatchewan Party government to fulfill their campaign promise to hire 300 continuing care aides.
“This is an election promise that they have indicated they'll be waiting until the spring of 2021 to fulfill. We're asking for that right now. We're also, number two, asking that this government introduce a standard of care, not a suggestion, but a clear standard of no more than two residents per room. And number three, we're asking the server to undertake in person inspections and any facility that has experienced an outbreak, and to make the results of those inspections available to the public,” Love said.
Meili said there had been 18 deaths at one facility, and many more in other facilities. “This is an avoidable, predictable, preventable situation,” he said.
He suggested the provincial government didn’t want military help, because when the military went into Ontario old age homes, they wrote a report about their deficiencies. “Is this why they don't want that military help? Do they not want to admit to things have gotten out of control on their watch? Rather than trying to save their own reputations, they should be trying to save lives. They should be incorporating every bit of assistance available. And that means getting every possible source of help, including the military, ready to go, either on the ground already if needed. Or at the very least, just a phone call away to get started.”
Reducing numbers in rooms
Asked if those four-persons per long-term care room were reduced to two, where they would put the other two people, Meili responded, “So there's immediate needs for where to house people and we do need to be looking at all the creative ways to do that, carefully, safely.
“When we're talking about this, we need to recognize that there's too much pressure on our long-term care homes. What's driving a lot of this isn't necessarily physical space, but the amount of staff available to be at the bedside. We do not have the staff-to-resident ratios that we should have. And that's got to be part of it, so increasing the number of staff. Yes, there will be a need to build some more facilities, but we also need to look a lot more using homecare keeping people home a lot longer, where they can be safer, happier, reduce some of the pressure on long term care, so that those are in long term care, get the best safest highest quality care but also so that as few people as possible, find themselves in longer term residential care.”
He said with regards to Extendicare Parkside in Regina, the 228-bed facility which has had 18 deaths, “They're not full, they just don't have enough staff. So they're keeping people in larger groups and in smaller rooms because that's easier to manage staff-wise. There are other facilities that are not full. Are we using all of that space? If there is, if that space is all being used, what else is possible? What other places can we have people so that they're in a place that is safe, and has the right level of care, because the alternative of keeping people in overcrowded, understaffed situations and having COVID-19 run through facilities, clearly that is unacceptable.”
While eventually, for some people, a line is crossed where homecare is not sufficient. But he said, “The longer it takes for that line to be crossed, the longer we can keep people home. The more people we can keep home forever, that never wind up in long term care, the better. That's why it's not just increasing homecare of what we see, which is largely nursing care, but also maintenance, meals, that kind of thing; expanding what's offered, knowing that that's far, far less expensive than doing the same work in in a dedicated home.”
