This has nothing to do with magic.What I find fascinating is that the "open up now" crowd, when pressed, want the exact same thing the "do it right" crowd wants.
Proper space to treat people who are infected without impacting other people who need medical care. Extra care taken to prevent outbreaks in vulnerable populations. Reasonable risk management and response to flare ups and outbreaks.
Despite that, they seem to think those things will happen magically without any work. We just open up and all these systems magically drop into place.
It's very odd.
This is a monumental task that will take a very long time to rectify.
There will be a vaccine and Covid-19 will be long gone before this issue is resolved.
This is an issue for future pandemics.
Pressure mounts on federal government to help fix, build long-term care homes as pandemic takes deadly toll
The catastrophic impact of COVID-19 on the long-term care sector likely was made worse by the outdated design and crowded conditions found in some facilities, experts say — and they blame governments for failing to fund renovations and new construction.
Jodi Hall, chair of the Canadian Association for Long Term Care (CALTC), said the pandemic's tragic toll has drawn public attention to a problem that's been around for years – chronic underfunding of long-term care homes by all levels of government. She's calling on Ottawa to step up.
Many existing nursing homes maintain four-bed, hospital-like wards, with residents separated only by a curtain. Older facilities also have shared washrooms and bathing areas, crowded dining rooms and narrow hallways.
"It raises a lot of challenges from an infection control perspective," Hall told CBC.
"There are many lessons to be learned and, as we look to the future, this is one that we can't continue to overlook."
About 80 per cent of all COVID-19-related deaths in Canada have been in long-term care facilities. The Canadian Armed Forces has deployed more than 1,250 personnel to help care for residents in seniors' homes in Quebec and Ontario, where there have been severe outbreaks.
Hall said homes with more modern designs and practices would have "assisted a stronger response" to the pandemic. Last month, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) rolled out a guidance document on infection prevention and control in long-term care homes — but Hall said some of those guidelines are "basically impossible" to follow in outdated facilities.
The CALTC has submitted four consecutive requests for federal funding in pre-budget presentations, but to date no investments have been promised.
She recently wrote to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and several key ministers, saying it's "imperative" that the federal government address the problem.
Shared rooms can be 'devastating'
"Any existing outbreak management plan in a long-term care home, including the isolation of symptomatic residents, is hindered by the inadequate space and layout available in long-term care homes today. We are seeing how devastating these shared rooms can be during an outbreak," she wrote.
"(Infrastructure) Minister Catherine McKenna has announced funding for shovel-ready projects and she is quoted as saying that her office is prepared to be flexible with its program rules in order to get money out the door to address the impact of COVID-19 on the Canadian economy. To date, however, we have not seen any support from the federal government on this issue."
McKenna has said the government will take a flexible approach to finding projects that are "shovel-worthy" and can get started fast to help drive an economic recovery.
Her spokesperson David Taylor said the pandemic has emphasized the importance of protecting vulnerable seniors and supporting long-term care facilities.
Pat Armstrong, a sociology professor at York University who led the 10-year international project Re-imagining Long-term Residential Care, said Canada needs a national long-term care law separate from the Canada Health Act. She said federal funding for long-term care facilities could be tied to certain conditions, such as improving the physical infrastructure of facilities.
While we won't know for certain until there is a post-pandemic review of individual outbreaks, Armstrong said the outdated designs of many of the facilities — some of which were built in the 1960s — likely contributed to the fast spread of the virus.
"If you have four people in a room that only has curtains and is crowded, people are going to cough and spit and people with dementia are less likely to be able to carry out the hand sanitizing ... or covering mouths. So the more crowded you are, the more likely it is to happen," she said.
Infection control challenges
Many homes don't have the capacity to properly separate those who have symptoms from those who do not, making infection control a challenge.
Armstrong said the lack of proper public funding for improved facility design reflects the low value Canadians attach to caring for the elderly – something she hopes will change after the pandemic finally ends.
"If we're ever going to have an opportunity to put pressure on, thinking about how we care for our elderly, now is the time," she said. "I think that we owe it to the people who have died that we learn something from this to make it better."