Premier Doug Ford’s government is falling short of its promises to conduct annual inspections of every long-term care home in Ontario and to boost the ratio of inspectors to homes, according to information obtained by CBC News.

The government announced a plan in October 2021 to double the number of long-term care inspectors, so that the province would have one inspector for every two nursing homes in the province.

There are 624 long-term care facilities in Ontario. However, figures provided to CBC News this week by the Ministry of Long-Term Care show that only 234 inspectors are currently working in the field.

That’s well short of the 312 that would be needed to meet the promised ratio.

Earlier this year, the government declared that it had already hit its target. “Ontario now has the highest inspector-to-home ratio in the country, surpassing our goal of having one inspector for every two homes in the province,” then-minister Paul Calandra said in a February news release.

Meanwhile, new data shows the government is also failing to meet its pledges on what are called “proactive compliance inspections” — a comprehensive inspection that doesn’t just investigate a specific incident.

  • Showroom7561
    42·
    1 year ago

    Help me understand.

    If these homes get an ANNUAL inspection, and there are 624 of them in Ontario, why do we need 300+ inspectors??

    A few dozen full timers could easily do this.

    • joshhsoj1902
      4·
      1 year ago

      I suspect it’s because these facilities are large.

      According to this statscan post from a few years ago. There were nearly 200000 long term care beds spread across the 648 facilities (at the time)

      https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/210916/dq210916c-eng.htm

      With 300 inspectors, they would need to in inspecting 650 beds a year, or 2-3 beds a day.

      I wish the article went into more details on how these inspections work, because those numbers do seem low, and I doubt a facility would be pleased having an inspector there 4-6 months every year…

      • Showroom7561
        11·
        1 year ago

        But do they inspect EVERY BED? That wouldn’t make sense. I wish they explained how these inspections actually work, to at least shed light on the apparently critical importance of having a few more inspectors.

    • girlfreddyOP
      31·
      1 year ago

      The new proactive inspections program adds to the current risk-based program of responding to complaints and critical incidents. The proactive inspections program will assist the government and long-term care homes in identifying and resolving problems to improve the quality of care provided to residents.

      The program takes a resident-centred approach by allowing for direct discussion with residents, to focus on their care needs as well as the home’s program and services. The results from proactive inspections will help the government determine where the sector can benefit from additional resources, including guidance material and best practices.

      The pandemic brought to light long-standing systemic challenges due to decades of neglect. The government has a plan to fix long-term care that is built on three pillars: improving staffing and care; protecting residents through better accountability, enforcement, and transparency; and building modern, safe, comfortable homes for seniors.

      The new proactive inspections program focuses on the following program areas: residents’ rights, infection prevention and control, plans of care, abuse and neglect, nutrition and hydration, medication management, policies and directives, and dining observations.

      Source

      • Showroom7561
        2·
        1 year ago

        Thank you for that. Still seems like an excessive number of inspectors, but I guess that’s just how it is.