The province is launching what it calls one of the largest recruitment and training drives in the province’s history to improve care for seniors in long term care homes across Ontario.
$1.9 billion annually is being earmarked to create more than 27,000 new positions for personal support workers, registered nurses, and registered practical nurses in long term care by 2024 or 25.
Included as part of the plan, Ontario will accelerate and expand education and training in order to train the tens of thousands of new staff that will be required. This includes four hours of personal care per day for each resident.
However, not everyone is thrilled with the news.
The Ontario Health Coalition was quick with its response, condemning the plan as too little, too late.
“We expected that they would launch a recruitment drive right now because long-term care is in the worst crisis it has ever been in,” says OHC executive director Natalie Mehra. “Instead, we got a report that is tone deaf and has no sense of urgency. It is full of buzzwords and re-announcements and includes timeline that is too late to make any difference in the lifetimes of the people who are living in the homes now.”
Mehra notes Quebec launched its own recruitment drive, hiring 10,000 PSWs, paying them for training, fast tracking that training, and getting them into long-term care homes in time for the pandemic’s second wave.
For its part, Ontario is also planning to engage with residents and families to develop a quality framework based on what quality of life and quality of care means to them.
