There's a motion on the table at Public Health Sudbury & Districts to ask for more money from the province for Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) programs involving long-term care and other congregate living situations in the North.
The motion is expected to be voted on at the Public Health Sudbury & Districts (PHSD) board of health meeting scheduled for Thursday afternoon.
The pre-agenda for the meeting revealed that PHSD was given a grant from the Ministry of Health (MOH) back in December for up to $840,000 in one-time funding. The MOH letter said the money was "to support the development of local networks to enhance Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) practices in community based, congregate living settings."
The PHSD motion said the funding was a "successful multi-partner network" that served congregate living settings throughout the health unit service area.
In addition to that, according to the motion, Ontario's Long-Term Care COVID-19 Commission issued a final report in April outlining the importance of IPAC and the "urgent need" for IPAC support programs.
With that in mind, the PHSD motion asks the provincial government to transition to the IPAC funding hub from a one-time program into one "with stable annual funding to provide for the protection from infectious diseases for residents in long-term care and other congregate living settings; and further that this motion be shared with Ministers of Health and of Long-Term Care, area partners, Northern boards of health, Ontario Health, and the Chief Medical Officer of Health."
In the final report of Ontario's LTC commission it was stated that not enough LTC homes followed IPAC procedures as seriously as they could have.
"What is clear is that IPAC preparations, staffing support, and partnerships between homes and other entities such as hospitals should have been critical priorities," said the report.
"Hospitals managed some homes through the crisis. However, once hospitals handed oversight of management back to the homes, there was concern that the problems that had given rise to these crises were not resolved."
