Manitoba Liberal floats idea of rapid response teams for second wave of pandemic in care homes – CTV News Winnipeg

WINNIPEG -- A Manitoba Liberal MLA is looking at the possibilities of a rapid response team to help personal care homes in the province respond if an outbreak of COVID-19 were to occur among residents.

On Tuesday, Jon Gerrard, Manitoba Liberal Party health critic and MLA for River Heights, hosted a Facebook Live forum on how personal care homes can prepare for a second wave of COVID-19.

Gerrard was joined by personal care home advocates Dot Sloik and Beverley Dueck to discuss changes they would like to see in the quality of care for Manitoba residents of personal care homes.

Among these ideas, Gerrard called for a rapid response team to help staff at care homes deal with potential outbreaks of the virus.

"They need to be able to come in, they need to be able to help the care home and get on top of the situation, make sure that the protocols are being followed, that people are being isolated and looked after well," Gerrard said.

"Its a crisis when you got a personal care home with somebody with an infection in it, and having a team which has been trained so they are ready to look after such an infection is a pretty important step."

Sloik said her father was in a personal care home from 2014 to 2018, and during that time, there were incidents of influenza.

"It caused more challenges than the staff was prepared to deal with and it's usually not enough staff to begin with," she said. "I can't even begin to imagine how overstressed the staff would be in a COVID incident coming into the care facility and the biosecurity is really difficult."

Both Dueck and Sloik said more staff are needed to improve the quality of life and care for residents.

The panel all called for the public release of the results of unannounced Personal Care Home Standard Reviews.

About 40 documents released through the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and obtained by CTV News shows the results of some of these reviews which reported incidents of uncleanliness in facilities.

READ MORE: Personal care home reviews need to be made public in Manitoba: health critics

"That is important not only to maintain high standards, but also when people are choosing a personal care home they can make a decision based on what people are finding during inspections," Gerrard said. "I think that will again put some pressure on people to do better in personal care homes."

A written statement from Manitoba Health, Seniors, and Active Living Minister Cameron Friesen said approximately 80 per cent of all deaths in Canada related to COVID-19 have been linked to personal care homes.

He said the province has been working to prevent the spread of any outbreaks, citing visitor restrictions, enhanced environmental cleaning and disinfecting practices, daily staff screening, adherence to provincial personal protective equipment requirements, and the implementation of a single-site PCH staffing model.

He added the province is committed to posting the outcomes of standards and unannounced reviews in personal care homes "with the intent of providing meaningful information to Manitobans, so they can make informed decisions.

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Manitoba Liberal floats idea of rapid response teams for second wave of pandemic in care homes - CTV News Winnipeg