The independent probe into Ontario's long-term care sector says there's no further need to study staffing improvement, but rather to implement them now, as part of their interim recommendations.
The Ontario Long-Term Care COVID-19 Commission decided to release early recommendations now, as it continues to study the problems exposed during the pandemic and eventually issue a full report and recommendations.
"We have heard that long-term care (LTC) homes were forgotten in the initial provincial plans to control the spread of COVID-19 until residents started dying, and pleas that this not be repeated when this crisis is over," the preliminary report said. "We are sending this letter today because the second wave is upon us."
"We feel confident in providing these early recommendations now, consistent with the precautionary principle, instead of waiting for more certainty as the pandemic continues to grow. "
At the top of the document addressed to Long-Term Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton are quotes from residents and others interviewed so far, including "devastating, emotional, lonely, depressed, muzzled, broken-spirited, boredom," and "terror awakened."
Key recommendations are addressing staffing immediately, including personal support workers and nurses, and more full-time positions to ensure stability and retention.
The commission also took note of the ministry's own Long-Term Care Staffing Study in response to the Elizabeth Wettlaufer inquiry, saying, "Further 'study' of the Study is not necessary. What is required is the Study's timely implementation."
Premier Doug Ford was asked during a news conference why the province hasn't acted on those.
"We have been acting," he said, pointing to more personal support workers trained and hired. "To get in there and support the system, a long-term care system that's been ignored for years, we're working day in and day out."
"We are going to have a much, much better long-term care system than this province has ever seen and I think people have been seeing it moving forward."
To address the neglect that residents have felt, the commission also recommends requiring a daily average of four hours of direct care per resident.
The report says infection prevention and control measures have to be scaled up, but the ministry must also build better relationships with hospitals and public health units in order to move residents if necessary.
Health Minister Christine Elliott said that work is getting underway.
"A number of people are now in hospitals, but we've also created a number of transitional care places within our hospital corporations so that we've been able to move some of the residents who are now in hospital, to these transitional care homes where they receive the physical rehabilitation, as well as the social rehabilitation," she said.
Other recommendations include better access for families and caregivers, as well as priority access to rapid COVID-19 tests.
The final report is scheduled to be submitted in April 2020.
"We are carefully reviewing each of the recommendations, as we continue to work hard to solve the long-standing and systemic challenges facing the long-term care system," Fullerton said in a statement. "We are investing over half a billion dollars to protect residents, caregivers, and staff in long-term care homes from the second wave."
Commission co-counsel John Callaghan said Ford and Fullerton have not yet been interviewed.
"We'll see how the commission goes and we'll see if it's necessary," he said, while explaining why that wouldn't be automatic. "These are massive topics and getting just the background and hearing from the various stakeholders, we've only just begun our work."
"So I wouldn't want it to be said that we are or we aren't calling anybody and I don't think I can hypothesize as to what we might do."
Callaghan said the accounts coming from residents and their families have been heart-wrenching and given the unique nature of doing a commission in the middle of a pandemic, the commissioners felt it necessary to get initial recommendations immediately.
He also acknowledged that while some critics have called for a public inquiry as opposed to a commission, the job is getting done.
"Transcripts are being posted, so people know what we're doing and we'll take it one day at a time as to whether we would ever have public hearings or not, but at the moment, it's more important to get to the bottom of this and determine who we can best help residents in long-term care."