It might be a good time for Ontario to look after the senior’s home inspection’s before worrying about how well we home Inspectors are doing
No comprehensive inspection for nearly 60% of Ontario’s long-term care homes
CTV London
Published Wednesday, December 3, 2014 4:25PM EST
More than half of Ontario’s long-term care homes have not had a comprehensive inspection this year, despite a 2013 promise from the province.
The Ontario government had promised that every long-term care home would have a Resident Quality Inspection, which is a thorough look at everything happening at the facility, every year, starting in 2014.
But as of the beginning of December, 58.6 per cent of homes in the province had not been through a thorough inspection.
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Southwestern Ontario Long-Term Care Home Resident Quality Inspections](http://london.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.2131484!/httpFile/file.pdf) Photos
With a complaint-driven inspection process, many incidents of neglect or abuse are never investigated because they aren’t reported and that was the reason annual, comprehensive inspections were promised.
And OPSEU’s Ron Elliot says “It’s just another broken promise. They never hired the staff to be able to do it…[they] get pulled away from inspections because they have to do complaints.”
The government hired 100 people to make sure the inspections got done, but only three quarters of them are actual inspectors, meaning there are only 140 inspectors to look into over 600 homes across the province.
Miranda Ferrier of the Ontario Personal Support Workers’ Association says that’s a major problem.
“They’re critical because people need to be held accountable; front-line staff, registered staff, administration, all the way to the director of care. They need to be held accountable for the care they are providing people.”
Comprehensive “Resident Quality Inspections” Reported Per Local Health Integration Network*
LHIN
Number of Long-Term Care Homes
Homes Not Inspected
Percentage Not Inspected
South West
78
40
51.3
Erie St. Clair
38
25
65.7
Waterloo Wellington
37
25
67.6
Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant
87
39
44.8
North Simcoe Muskoka
28
23
82.1
Central West
23
16
69.6
Mississauga Halton
28
17
60.7
Toronto Central
37
27
72.9
Central
46
35
76.1
Central East
69
41
59.4
South East
38
16
42.1
Champlain
61
23
37.7
North East
52
34
65.4
North West
21
16
76.2
TOTAL
643
377
58.6
*Please note these numbers do not include inspections that followed incidents or complaints, or follow-up inspections.
Recent statistics show that between 2011 and 2013 about 1,500 cases of abuse and neglect were reported in southwestern Ontario alone.
Elliot says, “Complaints of abuse in long-term care are extremely complicated. It takes a long time to investigate the complaint - our members are just run off their feet.”
The result is that most comprehensive inspections aren’t being done.
Ferrier says better care comes with more front-line staff, but they can’t do what they’re supposed to - and errors won’t be corrected - if the government doesn’t follow through.
“Everybody from front-line staff to owners, inspectors and ministry directors need to be held accountable and to complete the tasks they’re set out to do.”
For more information on whether a long-term care home has undergone a compresensive inspection visit: http://publicreporting.ltchomes.net/en-ca/Default.aspx](http://publicreporting.ltchomes.net/en-ca/Default.aspx)
Read more: http://london.ctvnews.ca/no-comprehensive-inspection-for-nearly-60-of-ontario-s-long-term-care-homes-1.2131327#ixzz3KttGaKJb](http://london.ctvnews.ca/no-comprehensive-inspection-for-nearly-60-of-ontario-s-long-term-care-homes-1.2131327#ixzz3KttGaKJb)