Fairhaven COVID-19 Employee Bulletin #37

There have been some questions asked about Ontario Health’s surveillance testing of LTC homes.  I’ve attached the Deputy Ministers Letter from May 31^st regarding the subject and will answer some of the questions that have been posed so far to me, by highlighted some of the text.

“It is intended that all LTC home staff be tested, at reasonable intervals, a minimum twice in the month of June” – The Ministry anticipates that everyone in Homes will be tested.  Their rationale on this is to gather data, that has been sorely lacking to this point, on asymptomatic carriers.  Entering the next couple of phases in the pandemic response, they need to understand the prevalence of virus carriers to keep employees and Residents safe.

“If homes wish to test their staff more frequently, they should advise the Ontario Health COVID-19 Testing Implementation Team at the email below.” – We are not planning on testing employees more than twice

There is no information on what Ontario Health is planning to do beyond June.  I imagine that this will depend on the response to, and related results from, this testing call.  When we here more about the period of July 2020 forward, we will let you know.

Participation Food – Yes, you will have choices other than chocolate bars.  We will also have different Lay’s chips and Cheetos.

More Kudos from Ministry of Long Term Care – Our current Inspector called our Home “amazing,” that our Home is “doing incredibly well, and said “obviously your staff are incredible and are doing a great job” two days ago on a call.  Everyone’s hard work and dedication has not gone unnoticed, nor did the comment in the Examiner about the unreasonableness of blaming direct care workers for the terrible issues that other Homes are facing.

Thank you for continuing to support the effort to work as a team to get past this brutal period with our own health and with healthy Residents as well.

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