Monday, April 3, 2023

Bring Healthcare Home

CLAC supports the Bring Care Home campaign launched by Home Care Ontario. We endorse the calls to immediately fast track spending of the Ontario government’s remaining $880 million budget toward better support for homecare workers

There is no question that moving care from institutional settings such as hospitals and long term care facilities into people’s homes is significantly more cost effective. The average daily cost of a patient in a hospital or other acute care setting is $730. The average daily cost of a patient in homecare is $103.

Clearly, it makes financial sense to move healthcare to people’s homes. It is also undeniable that the vast majority of people would prefer to receive efficient, timely healthcare in the comfort of their own home.

Despite the obvious savings and clear preferences of those needing healthcare, the harsh reality is that our seniors and those with chronic healthcare issues are being forced into hospital wards or long term care homes because of the desperate shortage of homecare workers. Ontario’s homecare system is in broken.

People who need homecare are waiting longer to get it. Those already receiving it are getting less care than they need. Skilled staff are leaving the sector altogether because of low wages and poor working conditions.

Where CLAC parts company with Home Care Ontario is how to most quickly improve the quality and quantity of care the system can offer. CLAC has been calling on government to spend public tax dollars directly on wages and working conditions of front-line healthcare workers.

What is needed to bring healthcare home is for the government to mandate minimum standards for homecare workers.

7 Homecare Standards the Government Should Implement Immediately

Provide a universal mileage reimbursement rate based on the maximum provisions provided for under the CRA.
Pay travel time at a nonreduced rate.
Pay for client cancellations.
Provide adequate sick-time protection.
Include retirement savings contributions.
End unpaid work.
Provide industry standard wages offered in other healthcare sectors.

To bring healthcare home, the government needs to take its thumb off the scale and allow homecare workers to be deemed as essential workers. This change will help rebalance the power differential that exists between front-line workers and for-profit corporations. It will allow workers to negotiate wages and working conditions that will attract and retain workers to the homecare sector.

Bring Healthcare Home

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