The province says they are working on modernizing care homes, something that contributed to last fall's serious outbreak situations.

One year ago, Maples Personal Care Home was in serious distress due to pandemic-related stresses, sending out multiple 911 calls. Paramedics worked through the night caring and assessing residents as the staff had become overworked. Four months later, 56 out of the home's 231 cases ended in deaths.

"This was a tragedy for the residents, their families, and for the staff caring for them," now-Premier Heather Stefanson said in February after the outbreak was declared over. 

Many other care homes, such as Parkview Place, also struggled to care for their residents.

As a result, an external review was conducted by Dr. Lynn Stevenson. After reviewing her 17 recommendations, the current health minister, Audrey Gordon, shares that 10 of those recommendations have been completed.

“These changes will help strengthen the care provided in all Manitoba personal care homes and will make a real difference for families, staff and residents in the long term," she says in a statement.

Still to be completed include:

  • Develop standardized provincial approaches to implement and support the provincial long-term care/personal care home pandemic plan
  • Develop a long-term care and personal care home provincial report with a focus on ensuring that personal care homes are an integral part of the continuum of care in the health care system
  • Infection prevention and control outbreak plans including infection prevention and control education and monitoring standards, an infection prevention and control staffing guideline, and an infection prevention and control provincial program standard for long term care
  • Develop an overall PCH staffing plan including a pandemic PCH staff redeployment plan, and a recruitment and retention plan for personal care homes
  • Begin and complete personal care home standards modernization
  • Develop personal care home communication task sheets and personal care home/central government communication tools

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