“Residents in long-term care do not need an iron ring to be placed around their homes. And, we don’t need the army to come to the rescue. These are band-aid solutions and stopgap measures that only serve to deal with immediate crises. They do nothing to change decades of underfunding, neglect and empty promises,” write Doris Grinspun and Carole Estabrooks.
What is needed most at this time is leadership and true collaboration among all levels of government to deliver an agreement around national standards and targeted funding. Such an agreement has the potential to right a terrible wrong and ensure it does not happen, ever again.
“Residents in long-term care do not need an iron ring to be placed around their homes. And, we don’t need the army to come to the rescue. These are band-aid solutions and stopgap measures that only serve to deal with immediate crises. They do nothing to change decades of underfunding, neglect and empty promises,” write Doris Grinspun and Carole Estabrooks.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, premiers and territorial leaders have a chance to make history this week when they sit down to discuss funding for health care.
On the agenda at the Thursday meeting is a long awaited encounter provincial and territorial governments have been seeking to make their argument for a boost in transfer payments. Money, no doubt, is needed to deliver health care, especially given the challenges of fighting COVID-19. Negotiations will be tough. Each side will come to the table with a desired outcome.
Trudeau will want to make headway on his promise to develop national standards for long-term care, announced in September’s Speech from the Throne and reinforced in the country’s Nov. 30 fiscal update. It’s a pledge that needed to be made because the country has watched in horror as thousands of vulnerable seniors have died; victims of a broken long-term care sector that has failed the very people for whom it was meant to provide care. It’s a pledge that now must be delivered.
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Premiers and territorial leaders will be looking for increases in transfer payments needed to deliver health care in their respective jurisdictions. And, while mindful of the tragedy that has unfolded in long-term care, they will seek the money without strings attached, arguing they know the needs of their respective populations best.
However, these same premiers have presided over our health systems’ response to COVID-19 and, in particular, the failures in long-term care. Accountabilities must be clear and demanded as we look to rebuild long-term care into the system it should be. Any nation’s long-term care system of health and social support for seniors who need such care must be resilient. It must be able to manage crises without catastrophic consequences, whether those be in excess deaths or unnecessary suffering. This is one mark of the moral fibre of a nation.
What is needed most at this time is leadership and true collaboration among all levels of government to deliver an agreement around national standards and targeted funding. Such an agreement has the potential to right a terrible wrong and ensure it does not happen, ever again.
Every single older adult living in long-term care is a parent, a grandparent, a spouse or a long-time companion, a sibling, a neighbour, a friend. They were once builders of our Canadian society. It is time now to deliver, time for action and long past time for remedy.
For more than two decades, dozens of reports have highlighted severe staffing shortages and inadequacies, a patchwork of regulation and oversight, and funding shortfalls — ignored by successive governments of every political stripe. We know what happened in 2020. It is time now to act. We need not just immediate actions, but a longer-term overhaul. Only the latter can protect Canadian seniors who need such care or help them to require this level of care later and less frequently.
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While the task of hammering out an agreement seems daunting, we do have precedent. Twenty years ago, Canada’s first ministers worked together to develop an agreement that resulted in improvements to primary health care. Gathered in September 2000 they realized that improvements were necessary to modernize the health system and better integrate primary care into the health system.
As part of that agreement, a Primary Health Care Transition Fund was created. The federal government, provinces and territories set aside differences for the good of Canadians by agreeing that team-based primary care and its obvious connection to the health system was needed. As a result we saw the formation of family health teams, family health networks, expanded community health centres, Aboriginal health centres and nurse practitioner-led clinics.
This is the type of courageous and collaborative effort that we, as Canadians need now. We cannot let this tragedy that has left in its wake so much trauma and grief for front line workers, managers, and families go unanswered. We have an opportunity to fix this — this is fixable.
Residents in long-term care do not need an iron ring to be placed around their homes. And, we don’t need the army to come to the rescue. These are band-aid solutions and stopgap measures that only serve to deal with immediate crises. They do nothing to change decades of underfunding, neglect and empty promises.
A central part of the significant change that is needed is national standards that reflect core Canadian values, a vision of what can be, and the guidance — the framework with which to rebuild this key part of our health and social care system.
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These are extraordinary times that demand extraordinary action to shape a stronger federation and a better future for seniors. Canadians are watching and they are hoping to see courage and co-operation in the place of jurisdictional bickering, and clear sighted leadership. This is a challenge but it is also an unprecedented opportunity.
Seize the moment. It may not pass this way again.
Dr. Doris Grinspun is the CEO of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario.Dr. Carole Estabrooks is nursing professor and Canada Research Chair, University of Alberta.
