Thread by @silvym98

@DrFullertonMPP @LeenaCP24
1. #LTC was always going to be where the disaster unfolds. @OntariosDoctors told u in the 1st wave, & everyone in the world knew it in this one. 1/

https://twitter.com/LeenaCP24/status/1344071989493977088

2. Relying on hospitals to "save the day" wrt IPAC, staffing & resources is an impossible task if in a hot zone, when also trying to continue to provide acute & chronic care services. We already knew that #onhealth added 80+ wks to wait lists just from 1st few mos of lockdown 2/

And now, w #hospital beds overflowing what will the future waitlist #s be?
3. Then add multiple #LTCs in outbreak 4 each hospital & where is more hospital staff to come from?
4. Meanwhile, while this is being sorted out, the patients & residents wait, suffer. Some die 3/

5. The assumption that everyone in #LTC is frail or end of life is inherently wrong and agist at best. I've worked in LTC for nearly a decade but all #physicians in primary care know this. 4/

6. We all know prevention is best.
If hospitals were in charge of #LTC, then they shld have been able to impose via ur ministry heavy fines/charges on those not doing everything possible to follow IPAC rules, hiring back up staff, renovating in summer & preparing non-stop 5/

7. There need not to be this game of reassurance that everything is fine, when everyone knows it isn't.
Each #LTC & hospital needed a secondary plan of
a) recruiting & incr $ for caregivers & having family be ready to step in for each home as 2ndary staff assigned 6/

b) having a back up staff of community nursing/physicians to be able to go in as attending staff, providing #physicians w $ support to cover their office expenses, as they work overtime to do regular job + crisis work 7/

c) asking #cdnpoli for the offered help, whether it be thru @CAF_Online or @redcrosscanada for extra manpower to step in on day 1 of outbreaks, wherever possible 8/

This would not only have saved lives, reduced suffering & prevented more infections, it would have saved $. Acute crisis care is far more $ than primary prevention. Again, we all know this 9/

Being in #LTC, being in any #congregatecare setting, means u need help. I'm not sure which part of society suggested that those who need our help were dispensable or secondary.
Beyond the ethics & morality of this, it's also not economical. 10/

Every #ontarian has been impacted by #COVID19Ontario. Whether loss of $ or by overworked #frontlineworkers, by stress of seeing suffering, or by being infected. By dealing w grief over loss of a person or livelihood, or depression from being alone & uncertain of future . 11/

We are, like it or not #AllInThisTogether and we need @fordnation to show leadership & change course when things don't work in real-time.

To be clear, everyone in #LTC & their associated hospitals are trying their damnedest. But #jan2021 will be a hard month. 12/

We can do this. We have to do this.
Everyone belongs to someone. Everyone has meaning.

We just need to act now #onpoli 13/