The Hospital Employees’ Union released a report that shows how B.C. was able outperform other provinces in protecting seniors in long-term care (LTC) during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report, titled Long-term Solutions for Long-term Care: Analyzing provincial COVID-19 responses to LTC staffing to improve working conditions and seniors care, compared pandemic policies in B.C., Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, and identified three key policies that were behind B.C.’s. success: single-site orders, wage standardization, and tuition-free training for care aides.
“This report shows that when we improve working conditions for health care workers, we also improve health outcomes,” says Hospital Employees’ Union secretary-business manager, Lynn Bueckert. “The pandemic exposed some very serious deficiencies in the working conditions for health care workers and, thus, the conditions of care for seniors. The suffering the pandemic caused was tragic, but to fail to learn from it is unacceptable.”
In B.C. the death rate in long-term care during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic was 2.6 per 100,000 population, lower than that of Alberta’s 3.2, and much lower than that of Ontario’s 13.5, and Quebec’s 43.2.
While many variables were at play in determining these rates, the report found that by working closely with unions and health care employers, B.C. was able to respond faster and more effectively to the threat that COVID-19 posed to seniors in long-term care. It also identified three main policies that were key to B.C.’s success:
- Single-Site Orders. B.C. was the first to put single-site orders in place to stop the virus from spreading from one facility to another, while providing stability for workers.
- Wage Standardization. B.C. was the only province to eliminate wage disparity between public and private workers, ensuring a standard, decent wage for all care aides to stabilize the sector in B.C.
- Free Tuition. B.C.’s tuition-free, paid training program for care aides was the most successful in recruiting and training long-term care aides to the sector, adding more than 7,000 new care aides in under three years.
With the number of Canadians in long-term care expected to double to 400,000 in the next 10 years, the report calls on other provinces to follow B.C.’s lead to address the staffing crisis that persists in long-term care across Canada.
“B.C. was able to act quickly and reduce the spread of the deadly virus in seniors’ homes because the government worked together with unions and health employers,” says Bueckert. “Unfortunately, that kind of collaboration didn’t appear to exist in other provinces, and both health care workers and seniors suffered as a result.”
