From the story ‘Long-Term Care minister wanted to talk nursing funding, she was questioned about residents dying of neglect instead’ (May 14, Sudbury.com, by Len Gillis), I read the following:
"The minister was asked to account for her actions on April 17, 2020 when (Long-Term Care Minister Merrilee) Fullerton had noted that military intervention was needed in Ontario long-term care (LTC) homes within 12 to 24 hours, but the intervention did not actually take place until several days later, on April 28.
“Fullerton answered that the increasing loss of life was devastating in a number of LTC homes back then. She said LTC homes were being monitored daily and there was ‘a whole team of people assessing the homes in terms of their risk’ and that staffing shortage was becoming more acute."
It made me sick to read this. What kind of civil service do we have? We have 'a whole team of people assessing the homes in terms of their risk' who seem to know exactly what is going on and do nothing but monitor the situation.
Instead of staying in their offices, why weren’t these so called ‘public servants’ in the affected homes offering people water and wiping them down?
Confronted, they would probably say they weren’t trained, or some such excuse, but this was a life or death situation. It seems a lot of people stood around and did nothing. How hard is it to pour a glass of water?
Of course, they will all continue to get their salaries, benefits and gold-plated government pensions.
To me, the actions of the minister and all the people who stood by and did nothing and took care of themselves first, amount to criminal negligence. That would include Minister Fullerton and it may well include Premier Doug Ford.
Tom Colton
Sudbury