Nursing Home Basic Care Guarantee: RNAO Submission to the Long-Term Care Staffing Study Advisory Group (June 10, 2020)
SIGN OUR ACTION ALERT!
Seventy‐nine thousand (79,000) of the province's frailest seniors call Ontario's 626 long‐term care (LTC) facilities home and trust them to meet their physical, social, spiritual and cognitive needs on a daily basis. The resident population is older, with 93 per cent over 64 years of age, 82 per cent being over 74 and 55 per cent over 84. And while there are definitely challenges in providing holistic care to seniors due to the increasing numbers in the “frail elderly” category and their rising acuity, we know care for older persons in our society can be provided in a manner that is safe, humane and client and family‐centred.
This submission is in response to the Long‐Term Care Staffing Study Advisory Group struck to address Recommendation 85 of the Gillese Inquiry into the criminal acts of a staff member that resulted in the untimely deaths of a number of residents and issued its recommendations on July 31, 2019. Justice Eileen Gillese gave the government a deadline of July 31, 2020 to develop a staffing plan for long‐term care, and table it in the legislature.
In this submission, the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO) asks to establish a “Nursing Home Basic Care Guarantee” for residents living in nursing homes. RNAO calls for a new era in LTC by guaranteeing the basic care needed, shoring up staffing levels for regulated and personal support staff, and adjusting the staff mix, so residents in nursing homes can count on consistent, safe and quality care.
The guarantee is for a staffing formula that provides no less than four hours of direct nursing and personal care per resident, per day. The formula also calls to ensure the proper skill mix by allocating a minimum of 0.8 hours (48 minutes) of RN care per resident, per day, 1.0 hours (60 minutes) of RPN care, and 2.2 hours of PSW care (132 minutes). Such an allocation would provide each resident with safe care and quality of life.
"This submission is to honour the 1,963 residents in LTC who lost their lives over the past four months, in part, because of years of government neglect."
Doris Grinspun
RNAO CEO
"Premier, too many lives have been lost and too many families are waiting for change that is long overdue. A nursing home basic care guarantee will help lead us where we need to go."
Angela Cooper Brathwaite
Then RNAO president
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