Seniors Need to Be the Priority, Not Paperwork, Says CLAC

DATE: September 20, 2011

London—CLAC added its voice to the growing chorus calling on the Ontario government to increase funding for senior care at a protest held today outside the London constituency office of the Honourable Deb Matthews, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care.

Members of CLAC, which represents over 7,000 workers in Ontario’s health care sector, many of them frontline caregivers, carried signs that read, “When Ontario’s seniors are ignored, Ontario loses.” At the heart of the protest is an appeal to the government to provide more funding for hands-on care. Currently, seniors in long-term care homes receive 2.8 hours of hands-on care per resident per day on average, one of the lowest averages in the country.

Healthcare workers and their unions have been lobbying for more funding to increase the amount to 3.5 hours, or 42 more minutes per day. The current funding level provides a frontline healthcare worker approximately six minutes to wake, wash, toilet, and dress a resident in the morning.

Over the years, governments have increased staffing levels marginally. However, changes to the Long-Term Care Homes Act in 2007 included new regulations that increased the amount of work for caregivers, most of which is documentation.  

Frontline workers want the seniors they care for to be the priority, not paperwork.

The protest is part of CLAC’s on-going Time to Care campaign (http://www.atimetocare.ca) and falls on the heels of similar protests held in recent weeks by other unions and healthcare professionals.