A new study released today suggests that like other Ontario communities, Niagara area long-term care residents receive less care from staff than just about anywhere in Canada.
The research, released in Welland today by CUPE, indicates that not only is the care underfunded, it's also unstaffed.
The union says that care is compromised in serveral areas including safety, cleanliness, eating and insufficient infection control.\
‘Long-Term Care Understaffing Fewer Hands in Niagara’ reviews the brewing crisis in care and estimates the level of understaffing at Niagara area long-term care homes.
Niagara has eleven long-term care facilities with 1,160 beds.
CUPE says only the sickest are even being allowed to wait for a long-term care bed because there aren’t enough beds in the system.
According to the research, an aggressive government strategy to cut costs by removing as many patients as possible from hospitals has compounded the difficulties of rapidly changing demographics.