Barrette angered by 'scary' treatment of elderly in long-term care facilities

Quebec Health Minister Gaétan Barrette is again promising to take action to stop patient abuse in long-term care facilities following the release of a disturbing report on the goings-on at a nursing home in the province's Abitibi-Témiscamingue region, which borders Northern Ontario.Released on Sept. 1, the four-page report details a litany of what it calls "serious flaws" in the quality of care, services, and living conditions for residents of the fourth floor of the Harricana nursing home in the mining town of Amos.The fourth-floor residents at the facility have cognitive impairments and severe physical disabilities that make them completely dependent on staff for their activities of daily living.An undercover visit by two ombudsman's office inspectors in June found what the report calls "harmful means of control, reprisals and harassment."Those means included verbal abuse and insults, and the padding of incontinent residents' pants."The actions and an intervention approach advocated by a nurse in a managerial position were the cause of these deficiencies," concluded the report.The report makes ten recommendations to the regional health board, several of them to be enacted within 60 days. They include "an exhaustive review" of the fourth floor's organization, the putting in place of a process to evaluate and improve the attitude of personnel there, and a reassessment of the means of control used with residents.The report also recommends the facility form a committee of independent expert to carry out an investigation on "the management practices behind the observed flaws in the quality of the care, services and approach used with fourth-floor residents."Barrette called the report's findings "scary.""There have several incidents that demonstrate how our elderly are being abused," he told La Presse. "There is a national urgency (to act)."The report is the latest in a series of horror stories of neglect and mistreatment at Quebec long-term care facilities.In January, for example, it was reported that 20 residents at choked to death on food over the past three years.And in June, Barrette promised to take action when the existence of a widespread and longstanding black-market system in which staff ask residents for under-the-table payments in exchange for off-hours baths was debated on the floor of the National Assembly."(Residence managers) have to put a definitive end to all under-the-table paid services that are offered to the public," Barrette said then.The minister made similar comments in regards to last week's report. "That's enough," he told La Presse. "It has to end. It's a question of accountability. Decisions will be taken."Barrette hinted at the possible use of cameras in hallways and patients' room as one remedy.In an email response today to the Medical Post, Barrette spokesperson Joanne Beauvais said the Quebec health ministry has been working "since early summer on different actions that we will take to preserve the health, safety and dignity of our elderly citizens."I can't disclose anything at this point as we will be making announcements in the near future," she added. "As for cameras, (Barrette's) position has been clear: he agrees, but recommends criteria to ensure the protection of (patients)."

Barrette angered by 'scary' treatment of elderly in long-term care facilities

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