Action Alert: Enshrine a nursing home basic care guarantee in legislation, premier, set the path forward!

On April 30, the report of Ontario’s Long-Term Care COVID-19 Commission was released. At the time of the report’s release, 3,758 nursing home residents and 11 staff had died from COVID-19.  According to the report, decades of neglect by successive governments made Ontario’s nursing homes “easy targets for uncontrolled outbreaks.” (p.8)

Join us! Call on the premier to enshrine a nursing home basic care guarantee in legislation that includes, at a minimum, the following recommendations of the commission’s report and RNAO’s own Nursing Home Basic Care Guarantee:

• A minimum four hours of direct personal and nursing care per day per resident
• A skill mix of 20 per cent registered nurses (RN), 25 per cent registered practical nurses (RPN) and 55 per cent personal support workers (PSW)
• One nurse practitioner (NP) per 120 beds
• One RN infection prevention and control (IPAC) lead per 120 beds
• An average of one hour of care per day per resident from allied health professionals
• Minimum restrictions on essential caregiver access to nursing home residents

RNAO is determined that these deaths not be in vain. We call on the premier to honour and respect those who died, the ones who loved them and the ones who cared for them, by enshrining into law a nursing home basic care guarantee. Join us!