Ontario stopped unanounced inspections within long-term care in 2020
This morning, a feature I wrote for Chatelaine went live.
In it, I write about Bob and Maria, residents of long-term care facilities, and the struggles that Jo-Anne and Nizi, their respective daughters, endure to keep them safe.
You can (and should!) read the feature here.
During the process of writing this, Ontario government officials told us that Ontario had stopped doing Resident Quality Inspections in 2020 (RQI). This was discovered when Flannery Dean, the crack fact checker of the piece, was following up with some questions. Their response, as it appears in the Chatelaine piece, was, “Ontario’s Ministry of Long-Term Care told Chatelaine that it’s working on creating “an improved proactive inspections program” but that this work was “sidelined” in 2021.
Resident Quality Inspections are done without giving a facility advanced notice that an inspector is on their way. They are unannounced, unlike an inspection that is triggered by a family complaint or by a critical incident. They are therefore the only kind of inspection that is proactive — an inspection that doesn’t need to have something happen before it happens. And critically, facilities don’t have time to prepare for an inspector’s visit. As I write in the piece, they’re the backbone of an adequate inspections regime and are the only kinds of inspections that discover systemic failures or problems within a facility. And at the height of a massive crisis within LTC, the Ontario government quietly ended them.
My research has linked 4248 deaths to long-term care facilities in Ontario since the start of the pandemic. Over that time, the fact that there has been no proactive, unannounced inspections is a complete disaster. Even if the Ontario government was planning to replace RQIs with something else, it’s absolutely shameful that they stopped them entirely at a time where they were most necessary.
And while you’re here… check out my latest piece for Passage as well.
https://readpassage.com/canadas-hospital-crisis-has-been-decades-in-the-making/
Tip of the moment: when a big snowstorm is announced, make a pot of soup.
Your article was excellent but I have to say that family advocating for their loved ones is not encouraged and many, many advocates have been punished for doing so.
Family members have been barred or outright unlawfully trespassed from seeing their senior parents, disabled children and friends living in homes.
The culture of fear for speaking out is palpable in seniors’ homes.
I, for one, am being sued for 4.5 million dollars for speaking out with others at City View Retirement in Ottawa.
Whistle blowing has had many consequences for many advocates.
Don’t hesitate to contact me at Accestoseniorsanddisabled@gmail.com or 613 222-5798.