After 1,538 deaths in Ontario long-term homes, one would have thought the story couldn’t get much worse. But a federal report Tuesday on five troubled homes has forced the provincial government into severe, but largely unsuccessful, damage control.
Premier Doug Ford described the situation at the five homes as “appalling,” “disgusting,” “heartbreaking” and “horrific” as he searched for an adjective sufficient to describe the problem. He needn’t have bothered. The report speaks for itself.
A month ago, the province called on military help to restore control in the beleaguered homes. In its report on the deployment, the military said it found residents being left in their beds, not being bathed for weeks, fecal matter in rooms, cockroaches, residents crying out for help for hours, contaminated medical equipment and improperly used protective equipment. In a word, bedlam.
Tuesday certainly wasn’t the first day that Ford has been called to account for Ontario’s weak response to COVID-19 in long-term care. He has a durable line about how he inherited an Ontario system that has been “broken” for decades, and his government is working hard to fix it. That’s a fair point, but it didn’t help him much this time.
The question Ford did not really answer in his daily media event is this: If these five homes were so bad that the province had to call in the military, how in the world did provincial officials not know just how horrible the conditions had become?
[Interesting Read]
See Also:
(1) Doug Ford must call inquiry into long-term care — now
(2) ‘Sorry’ doesn’t cut it in sad tale of long-term care homes
(3) What’s inside the disturbing report on Ontario’s long-term-care homes
(4) Military Report Full (PDF)
(5) Doug Ford warns landlords of ‘consequences’ as small businesses fret evictions on June 1
(6) Quarantine was supposed to buy Ontario time. The province squandered it
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