Union Wants Investigation Into Private Nursing Homes

There are calls for New Brunswick’s seniors’ advocate to investigate care delivery at private nursing homes in the province.

The New Brunswick Nurses Union, which made the request, said there are some “inadequacies” in long-term care facilities.

President Paula Doucet says she believes patient care in for-profit facilities is “well below” the 2.87 hours per day it should be.

“We’re trying to deliver the best care that we can according to our standards of care, and that’s becoming increasingly more difficult and what’s happening is these seniors are calling through the cracks when it comes to good quality care that they deserve,” said Doucet.

“We know that more and more, there are chronic diseases and the care for long-term care residents has become quite complex. We are in a shortage of registered nurses right now.”

In a news release, the union said there is an “extraordinary accumulation of evidence” that substandard care in privatized nursing homes is putting Canadian seniors at risk.

Doucet pointed to a recent report in British Columbia which found for-profit nursing homes spend less on resident care than not-for-profit homes.

“What it did show is that not-for-profit care homes really exceeds the number of care hours that is the bare minimum whereas for-profit homes did not even meet some of those standards.”

Union members will be meeting with the seniors’ advocate over the coming weeks to discuss the issue. Doucet said she is confident the issue will be addressed.

“With the global pandemic and the lens that everybody is looking at the long-term care sector across Canada, I think now is the time to make those requests and to really work toward improving that sector for our seniors.”