Supply shortage for Ontario home care, palliative patients 'unacceptable': minister
Ontario is wrestling with delays and shortages of supplies needed for home and palliative care, with dying people unable to get sedatives and patients going to hospital because their supplies have run out, the province's doctors say.
Health Minister Sylvia Jones said Monday that she and her ministry are working hard to rectify the "frustrating" situation.
"(It) is absolutely unacceptable," she said in question period.
"We have been working with Ontario Health atHome to ensure that no patients, no patients' families, no clinicians are impacted by a logistics issue. I want to assure the people of Ontario that we have been on this issue since we first learned that there were shortages. ... We know this is unacceptable and we are not going to allow this to continue."
Jones said she has directed the agency to reimburse any patient, family or clinician who has paid out of pocket for necessary equipment.
Ontario Health atHome said in a statement that it has new supply contracts as of Sept. 24 and it is doing everything possible to stabilize the delivery of critical medical items.
"Ontario Health atHome’s goal was to ensure access to high-quality products across all regions, improve supplier resiliency, enhance processes and better service standards," the agency wrote about the new contracts.
"We are working together with vendors and service providers to restore the high-quality care patients, their families and caregivers deserve."
Dr. Joyce Cheung, the Ontario Medical Association's chair of palliative medicine, said palliative care doctors across the province have been raising concerns about medication and supply delays that have sent patients to emergency rooms, and a lack of medication and needles leaving people in pain.
One of her palliative patients went 30 hours without a pain pump, she said, and another patient with metastatic cancer nearly ran out of ostomy bags for collecting stool.
"I don't know what to do," she said. "Are people buying supplies off Amazon where we cannot validate the quality of these supplies? We're hearing these stories. They are ongoing in every corner of the province."
The province passed legislation late last year to create Ontario Health atHome, in order to better co-ordinate home care across the province. Cheung said physicians were not part of any transition planning when the agency switched to new suppliers this fall.
"We were all taken aback," she said. "We're just like, 'What is going on?' We're just seeing what's happening on the ground, and we don't even know how to pivot, because we didn't realize this was going to be such a disaster."
There were probably good intentions behind standardizing supply contracts, but the implementation has gone awry and it seems as though the vendors did not anticipate the amount of supplies they would need, she said.
"I think there's going to be some forensics to be done afterwards of what actually happened," Cheung said. "How can we prevent this from happening again?"
Liberal health critic and emergency room doctor Adil Shamji said the situation is dire, and should have been anticipated.
"When I had a chance to speak with ministry bureaucrats and to debate the legislation that brought forward Ontario Health atHome, it was clear that, apart from knowing what the branding was — specifically that it would be called Ontario Health atHome — they had no other clue about how this centralized, mega agency would actually perform, would actually be able to deliver care for patients who require it from home," he said.
"They're scrambling and flying by the seat of their pants."
NDP Leader Marit Stiles said she wants clear answers as to why this happened in the first place.
"Not only is it unacceptable what's happening in home care right now, but it's unethical, deeply unethical," she said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING CTV News projects N.B. Liberals will form majority government
CTV News is projecting the New Brunswick Liberals will form a majority government.
Major Toronto hospital network reinstates masking requirement
The University Health Network (UHN) is making masks mandatory as respiratory illness season ramps up.
Investigation ongoing into death of 19-year-old Walmart employee in Halifax
The investigation into the sudden death of a 19-year-old Walmart employee over the weekend is ongoing in Halifax.
2 plead guilty to B.C. murder of former Air India suspect Ripudaman Singh Malik
Two men charged in the killing of former Air India bombing suspect Ripudaman Singh Malik have pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in a British Columbia court.
Former B.C. premier Christy Clark wants to be 'part of the conversation' on Liberal party future
As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faces growing pressure to step aside, former B.C. premier Christy Clark says she is open to 'returning to politics' should the position of Liberal leader become available.
Death toll from B.C. atmospheric river climbs as driver found dead, another presumed drowned
Mounties on Vancouver Island say one person is dead and another is presumed to have drowned after two vehicles were found submerged in a river following heavy rains that washed out roadways across British Columbia.
Alleged assassination target calls expelled Indian high commissioner 'less of a diplomat and more of a hypocrite'
Gurpatwant Singh Pannun — a dual Canada-United States citizen and the target of an alleged assassination attempt in New York City last year — says the expelled Indian High Commissioner to Canada, Sanjay Kumar Verma, is 'less of a diplomat, and more of a hypocrite.'
5 dead in shooting at Washington state home with teen in custody, police say
Law enforcement officials found five people killed in a shooting inside a home southeast of Seattle on Monday morning and took a teenager into custody, police said.
Are you a Canadian stuck in Cuba without power? We want to hear from you
Daily life in Cuba has been largely affected since an outage led to a nationwide blackout in the country, followed by Tropical Storm Oscar hitting the country's east coast. If you're a Canadian stuck in Cuba through this ordeal, CTV News wants to hear from you.