Staffing crisis in long-term care is urgent – not a problem to be put off to 2025

HAMILTON — The government should have hired at least 10,000 new full-time personal support workers (PSWs) before the second wave of the pandemic — making Doug Ford’s promise of more staff by 2025 dangerously late, said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.

“Our parents and grandparents are in crisis. More are becoming infected every day and more are dying every day. Heartbreaking stories of neglect are still rampant, and 2,526 have tragically lost their lives,” said Horwath.

“We need an emergency mobilization to add thousands of PSWs to nursing homes right now. They cannot wait for 2025. This timeline is a disgusting example of Doug Ford doing nothing today in order to save money today — and our loved ones are paying the price for that choice.”

British Columbia spent $1.6 billion to hire and train 7,000 health care workers before the second wave hit.

Quebec hired and trained 10,000 workers for long-term care homes before the second wave.

Both achieved that in just weeks.

Ford’s plan also doesn’t say how the government intends to incentivize people to join the field. Personal support workers (PSWs) are terribly underpaid, with some earning barely more than minimum wage.

The NDP’s long-term care and homecare platform commits to giving all personal support workers (PSWs) a $5 an hour raise, and full-time jobs. Horwath’s platform also includes staffing up in order to guarantee every resident a minimum of four hours of direct hands on care per day. The NDP has tabled bill four times in the legislature that would guarantee a staffing ratio that can deliver that — and Conservative and Liberal governments have blocked it every time.

The Time to Care Act bill, guaranteeing a minimum of four hours of hands on care per resident per day, has been introduced by

• MPP France Gélinas, April 2016
• MPP France Gélinas, October 2016
• NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, April 2018
• MPP Teresa Armstrong, July 2018