Ontario long-term care residents could lose beds if they leave home for overnight social visits
CBC
Residents of Ontario's long-term care homes could lose their beds if they leave the home overnight for social purposes during the holidays, under a new provincial policy intended to slow the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
The new policy came into effect on Dec. 17.
"These temporary enhanced and responsive measures are necessary to provide optimal safety and support to residents, and to safeguard the staff who are critical to caring for residents," a ministry spokesperson said in a statement provided to CBC News on Friday. "We are closely monitoring the evolving situation in our long-term care homes, and will continue to work with the Chief Medical Officer of Health [Dr. Kieran Moore] to determine if further measures are necessary."
Specifically, the statement reads that a resident who leaves overnight "may be temporarily discharged and need to follow the re-admission protocol to return at a later date."
A memo from Erin Hannah, Ontario's associate deputy minister of long-term care for policy and pandemic response, states "overnight absences are currently suspended due to the high transmissibility and prevalence of the Omicron variant within many Ontario communities."
Hannah's memo states that if a resident's absence from a home is less than three months, they'd be placed into a "re-admission" category, which is the highest-ranking category for vacant beds.
Longer absences would require the resident to go through a truncated assessment with a placement coordinator; if the resident is accepted, they'd also go into the "re-admission" category.
Hannah's memo also notes that essential, medical, and palliative absences are still permitted, regardless of a resident's vaccination status.
Social day absences for fully-vaccinated residents are also still permitted.
No information about how long the policy may be in place was provided.
One of the facilities affected is Essex's Iler Lodge, where a letter about the new policy was recently sent out to residents and their families.
Dillin Redmile, who was visiting his grandmother at Iler Lodge on Friday, said the new policy "a little unbelievable."
"No matter what the circumstances, you should be able to spend time with your family," he said. "What's one night really going to do if you go hang out with your nephew, or son, or grandson?"
Redmile said his grandmother had initially waited for about a month to get a bed at Iler Lodge.
At a time when Canada is vastly expanding its child-care system, and just eight months after a major E. coli outbreak in Calgary child-care centres, an Alberta Health Services analysis shows the province is lagging in its rate of daycare inspections, falling far short of its guideline of at least two inspections per year at each of the province's licensed daycare centres.