Ontario advocates say more home care is solution to hallway medicine

Home Care Ontario is calling on the province to embrace home care as the solution to hallway medicine. 

That's good news for home care patients like Novelette Munroe, who told CBC Toronto the system hasn't been able to fully meet her needs for some time now. 

Munroe lives in Scarborough and has Recessive Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa, a skin condition that requires full body bandages that need to be changed every other day to avoid infection.

"It's been really difficult to find enough nurses to do my care," she said. "I don't have anybody coming in on the weekends at all because there's not enough nurses available."

Munroe's 70-year-old mother helps her fill the gap, but they both worry about what will happen when that's no longer an option. 

Staffing is one of the main issues that Sue VanderBent, Home Care Ontario's CEO, hopes to address with additional government funding. 

"Home care is a very, very important part of keeping the whole system of health care healthy," she told CBC Toronto.

"There's 45,000 people waiting for a bed in long-term care in Ontario right now … It's sad to think that all happened because we didn't put in the home care that they really needed," VanderBent said.

"It's shortsighted and it isn't good care for the people of Ontario."

Home Care Ontario is calling on the province to significantly increase the number of visits and hours of home care by 10 per cent a year for the next three years — roughly 16.5 million hours of additional care. 

"I think that's exactly what's needed," said Munroe. "There needs to be more investment." 

Experts in the field, including Sinai Health's Dr. Samir Sinha, agree. 

"The real challenge we have right now in Ontario is that we just don't simply have enough home care to meet the current demands," Sinha told CBC Toronto.

"Fifteen per cent of our hospital beds are occupied by people, many of whom want to go home with home care, but they can't," he said.