The Saskatchewan New Democratic Party focused on long-term care on Oct. 13, with Saskatoon Fairview candidate Vicki Mowat holding a press conference at Saskatoon’s St. Joseph’s Special Care Home.
Mowat said, “If elected, Ryan Meili and the New Democrats would implement minimum standards of care in all our long-term care facilities. This would help ensure each resident has the time they need with healthcare workers to stay safe, to be healthy, and to live a dignified life. It would also relieve the pressures on workers, increased staffing and facilities and ensure caregivers have the time they need to do their job safely.
“Scott Moe scrapped the standards of care in 2011 entirely, and for years, families, healthcare workers and care homes have called for stronger standards and support. We've committed to hiring hundreds more doctors, nurses and continuing care workers to help do this work. Facilities will be able to hire more staff and improve staff-to-patient ratios. It will mean better care for our loved ones, and a stronger system for everyone. Saskatchewan families are ready for change.”
Brenda Cromwell of Saskatoon spoke of her late father, who had dementia, living in long-term care in that city. Cromwell said, “The care workers who cared for my father did the best they could. Sometimes basic care needs were not met in a timely matter, because the facilities were always chronically understaffed. Nurse staffing as well, was not always adequate, resulting in delays of care.
“My family and I became concerned with the lack of care that my father received. At first, I was there every day, and my brother would come off to work and spell me off. Eventually, my brother left his job, and between the two of us, we were with dad an average 14 hours a day, working two shifts, seven hours each, seven days a week. We did this to supplement my father's care.”
Cromwell continued, “I saw firsthand this government's disregard for the long-term care system and the elderly people who rely on it. I saw seniors trapped in their rooms waiting for staff to be available to help them go into the washroom. I found seniors fallen on the floor who could not get up on their own. I would run around the facility to find an aide or nurses that could help, sometimes having to go out of that unit into another one because no aides or nurses were available.
“I saw stressed and overworked aides and nurses lose their ability to provide the highest quality of care they so desperately wanted to give. It broke my heart then. And it breaks my heart now, not just for my father, but for the men and women who deserve so much better in these facilities.
“I am a senior, and I want a better system in place if I need assistance as I age,” Cromwell concluded.
Mowat said that there isn’t a specific dollar figure attached, but it dovetailed with previous announcements for $100 million to bring on 1,050 more doctors, nurses, and continuing care aides.
Mowat said, “Providing the best home care in Canada is a great way to take some of those pressures off of our long-term care system. So, allowing people to age with dignity and age in their own homes for longer is something that people want.”
Those minimum standards would be legislated specific regulated hours of care per resident, she said.
Mowat added, “Each resident would have a certain number of hours dedicated to them, with one-on-one staff time. And so, it's different from what exists right now. There was legislation in place up until 2011. The Sask. Party scrapped that legislation.
“Under the Sask. Party system right now they have what they've called guidelines. Their own CEO tour reports show that these guidelines aren't good enough; that our seniors are being left behind. And we need to ensure that we have these minimum standards of care legislated so that the care will be provided.”
