Private CHSLDs helped for free
It’s in Le Soleil that I found this piece on how public health workers have been ordered to work in private CHSLDs in Montreal. They receive their usual rate of pay, but the for-profit homes don’t have to reimburse the government — another example of investors forcing public money to cover private risk.
Ephraim 09:52 on 2020-12-25 Permalink
Do you prefer that the homes send the people to the hospital instead?
An RPA can have a small “hospital” wing. But they doctor that they bring in still bills to RAMQ. But if it gets serious, don’t they send them to a hospital?
Kate 10:14 on 2020-12-25 Permalink
I’m not saying I prefer anything, but I think it newsworthy that the private side can use the emergency to commandeer public workers, yet not reimburse the public purse. Obviously something has to be done if residents of a home are hanging on without any help, and that Le Soleil piece makes the grimness of their situation clear – unwashed, fed cold food, and generally neglected, while the owners still profit.
I also thought it meta-newsworthy that the story was covered by a Quebec City paper.
Ephraim 15:50 on 2020-12-25 Permalink
Most of the RPAs don’t have nurses or doctors at all. These people would otherwise be sent to the hospitals and overwhelm that situation there. And then we don’t really have a protocol for taking them back to the RPAs…. because someone who tests positive isn’t something that they want back in their ranks. They don’t have a way to handle the spread internal, since it’s essentially an apartment building with a few services… but one of the services is meal services.