A number of health advocacy groups are calling for a formal inquiry into what they say is human rights discrimination against the elderly when it comes to access to levels of care in hospitals and long term care facilities.
Executive Director Natalie Mehra was representing the Ontario Health coalition, and says the wait times are outrageous.
“Erie St Clair, including Windsor, Sarnia, and Chatham, the LHIN doesn’t actually provide the average number of beds, the wait times range up to 1371 days, so almost four years,” Mehra says.
The Advocacy Centre for the Elderly and CUPE are lending their voices to the call, along with other provincial health advocacy groups across the country.
“We hear from residents and their families every day of people who are waiting now, six weeks or more for a bath, people are not being fed, people who are not being turned to prevent bed sores,” Mehra says. “Basic care that is not happening in the homes.”
there’s also a call for national standards for long term residential care, including increasing staffing levels to provide sufficient staffing & an appropriate staff mix to meet the care needs of residents and support for the staff, and requiring a minimum care standard for daily hands-on care that provides for residents’ care needs.