Monthly Testing of Employees
Last night we received word that the Ministry of Long Term Care released a memo stating that the province is requiring continued surveillance of LTC home staff effective immediately.
According to the memo, all Home staff will be tested, at intervals, a minimum of twice in the month of June. Staff will include all individuals working in the LTC home (e.g., front-line workers, management, food-service workers, contracted service providers, etc.) and where possible, testing should be conducted by the LTC home. The Ministry also indicated that the intention is to have homes that have the capacity to complete testing to start as soon as possible.
Public health will not be involved in surveillance tests going forward. All LTC homes will either have to use their own staff or partner with hospitals, EMS or others to complete these tests. Homes are encouraged to contact Ontario Health to discuss your testing strategy. The Ministry recognized that testing will be a challenge for homes that are not part of a large chain but did not offer any solutions for how this can be worked into the already busy days/weeks/months that we already have.
We will need to work on a internal plan, to make this happen, over the next few days, including the sourcing of swabs. When we have more information, we will pass it on to everyone.
Newspaper Article
The Article in the Peterborough Examiner on Friday was originally supposed to centre on Ministry funding as well as the Reports from the Canadian Armed Forces on the Homes that they were assisting with. Most of that was not included but I was happy they included the following quote from me that I asked specifically for them to include:
- “It is very difficult, without proper context, to judge direct care staff in these Homes. While it is clear that some seriously improper actions occurred, there are also a large number of PSWs and nurses that, despite overwhelming conditions, stayed to care for Residents when other staff were leaving and not going back.”
Please consider all Fairhaven COVID-19 Employee Bulletins to be official notifications of consultation with the Fairhaven Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committee.
we>i – “Together we are greater than the individual”
Lionel Towns, CPA, CMA
Executive Director
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