TORONTO— Dans la tourmente, le système de soins de longue durée de l’Ontario nécessite un investissement supplémentaire de 1,8 milliard de dollars par an pour atteindre les niveaux de qualité des soins et de sécurité recommandés, selon une nouvelle étude du Centre canadien de politiques alternatives (CCPA).
Health, health care system, pharmacare
The COVID-19 pandemic has made the holes in our social safety net and the failures in our social infrastructure painfully obvious. A horrific example of these failures is the impact of the pandemic in long-term care (LTC) homes.
“What does it cost to care?” Long-term care needs $1.8 billion to reach safe staffing levels: report
TORONTO—Ontario’s beleaguered long-term care system needs a funding injection of $1.8 billion a year to bring wages and staffing up to recommended levels of quality of care and safety, according to a new study from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
On March 18, Day Support Programs providing supports to persons with intellectual disabilities went in to critical service mode. The move to critical services meant that the majority of Day Program Services were closed in keeping with public health requirements and to keep our most vulnerable populations safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As Manitoba re-opens, COVID-19 remains a pressing public health threat—one that will continue to require governments of all levels to step up with more efforts to protect the public. The Manitoba provincial government will have to do its part.
Manitoba still has a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), including N-95 masks, for all health care workers, including home care and personal care home staff.
These are essential workers and we can’t turn them into sacrificial workers.
Included on any list of COVID-19 heroes must be public transit drivers. Yet their workplaces are not safe from COVID-19. In the US, at least 100 bus drivers have died from COVID-19. Here in Winnipeg, transit drivers have been deemed essential by Mayor Brian Bowman but they have not, until very recently, been afforded any protections against this deadly disease despite their continued exposure to the public.
Emergency measures are deemed universally necessary to prevent the transmission and control of COVID-19. Around the world, people are asked to: wash hands often, maintain physical distance and quarantine in your shelter (WHO, 2020, Health Canada, 2020). These are effective measures to slow down the transmission of the virus (WHO, 2020) but in communities with overcrowded homes that lack piped water and with no hospitals — how can Canada make this pipe dream a reality?
OTTAWA – As provinces begin re-opening, following a COVID-19 enforced shutdown that protected millions of workers from high-risk workplaces, many workers will be pressured to go back to jobs that will put them at great risk of infection.
Speaking Up May 11, 2020