Our journalist covering the health sector, Marie-Eve Cousineau, recently reported in The duty another one of those stories that will bring tears to the eyes and whip up the fiber of indignation. Eight seniors who occupied hospital beds in the Laurentians were moved, immediately, to a CHSLD in Sainte-Adèle, which claims to have had just an hour to find where to park the newcomers.
Park, yes. Because all eight of them found themselves in a multifunctional room without toilets or sinks.
“The first patient arrived at the same time as the beds, while the room was practically completely empty,” relates the head of the CHSLD medical service, visibly outraged that such a situation conferring indignity took place in his home, unwillingly. Each of the beds was associated with a pedal sink, in the absence of a real sink. Commode chairs were distributed to each patient. As a partition, curtains gave a little touch of intimacy to this desolate scene.
How can health service managers still allow such aberrations to occur after all the lessons learned over the years on the importance of properly planning long-term residential services and the essential nature of respect for dignity in eldercare?
On a very logistical level, this sudden move was caused by the congestion of hospitals in the Laurentians, which turned to bulky patients: those who occupy beds without requiring emergency care, but who have not been found space in a long-term accommodation unit. According to the most recent data provided by the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS), Quebec currently has 2,325 of these limbo patients, caught between two zones, including 29% precisely waiting for a place in a CHSLD . In this revolving door phenomenon, which is nothing new, but whose crisis phases are closely linked to periods of congestion in hospitals, as in this virus season, these waiting patients are the most at risk of be carried around according to available resources. Quebec estimates that there should not be more than 8% of these patients in hospitals. They are currently 14.11%.
These inhumane stories are rooted in years of inaction and absolute lack of planning, such as consultancy agencies government have described it in many ways over the past decade. They also reflect a total disrespect for the laws establishing as a fundamental principle the need for citizens to receive care with respect for their dignity and privacy. Due to a lack of resources and poorly equipped to deal with the aging of the population, Quebec is no longer able to honor these fundamental rights. It is not good to age in Quebec.
At the turn of the 2000s, Quebec decreed that it was necessary to prioritize home care if that was the patient’s wishes, and no longer rely entirely on long-term accommodation resources. “At home – The first choice” had become the watchword, which 20 years later we are still trying to achieve in winning conditions. In his latest report, the Public Protector clearly described the “winding and worrying path” that constitutes access to public accommodation, and he criticized the MSSS for not paying enough attention to the so-called “transient” clientele. , that is to say installed in a temporary resource waiting for the appropriate living environment.
In his 2021-2022 annual report, the Auditor General clearly concluded that this observation of contemporary failure is the inevitable consequence of a total absence of upstream planning. The ministry has not regularly carried out projections of accommodation demand, he concludes. It has not defined how it would reorganize itself in the context of a shift towards home support, he adds. Inevitable conclusion: the current supply does not in the least allow it to meet demand! If nothing is done, the dramatic stories of citizens left to their own devices will only add up: by 2040, the population aged 70 and over must grow by 69% in Quebec. Conversely, healthcare personnel will remain a rare and coveted workforce.
All this plays out against a backdrop of ministerial euphoria each time a ribbon is cut in front of a new seniors’ home, one of the solutions presented by the CAQ to the housing problem. There are 3,500 places to be offered in these promises of paradise, as the Minister responsible for Seniors, Sonia Bélanger, reminded us again this week. In a context where aging customers will continue to increase, these additions are not a panacea. Unfortunately, there is a future for the pedal sink.