Long-Term Care Commission

About Ontario’s Long-Term Care COVID-19 Commission

The government of Ontario has launched a long-term care commission to look into how and why COVID-19 spread in long-term care homes, and the impact of COVID-19 on the existing system. The commission released its report on April 30, 2021. The commission was led by The Honourable Justice Frank Marrocco, who has participated in many inquiries including the Walkerton Inquiry. Ms. Angela Coke and Dr. Jack Kitts were also been appointed as commissioners. Click here to read more about the commissioners.

ONA Submits Impactful Reports to the Commission to Ensure Members’ Voices are Heard

When the Ontario government launched the Long-Term Care COVID-19 Commission on July 29, 2020 to examine the devastation that occurred as the virus ravaged this sector, ONA knew we had a big role to play. 

Reiterating the shortcomings in LTC we have brought to government tables since long before the pandemic hit, adding powerful new statistics and information, highlighting the heartbreaking personal accounts of our LTC members, gleaned from hundreds of interviews and surveys, and compiling meaningful recommendations to ensure a tragedy like this never happens again, ONA prepared three reports for the Commission: COVID-19 in Long-Term Care: ONA Survey Results; ONA’s Final Submissions and Recommendations; and Are We in This Together? The Voices of Ontario’s Long-Term Care Nurses. Click on the individual reports below.  

We also commissioned a fourth report, Fatal Choices: COVID-19, Nursing and the Tragedy of Long-Term Care, authored by Mario Possamai, former senior advisor to the Ontario SARS Commission, which thoughtfully analyzes the circumstances and decisions made in LTC that led to its current state.
View the report at this link or below
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These reports are substantial. They needed to be. And so we also prepared Executive Summaries of Key ONA Reports Provided to the Long-Term Care COVID-19 Commission, which provides a high-level summary of each report, with links to the full submission.
View the report at this link or on the right.


The voice of our members must be heard by the Commission. With these four reports, we are confident they will be.

Reports:

Shareables:

Resources:

They saw suffering and death and braved COVID-19 in long-term-care homes. Ontario nurses recount the horrors of the frontlines that left many with PTSD symptoms

 (Toronto Star, March 20, 2021)

Other nurses were devastated by the number of resident deaths. One said she is unable to forget the man in his 70s who lay in bed, curled in a ball, sobbing as he died alone. Another nurse who worked through a deadly outbreak that she likened to a war zone said she now cries for no reason. “It’s embarrassing,” she said.

The stories and data come from the ONA, which gave the Star an early look at its survey of long-term care nurses who worked through the pandemic from March to October.

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Read the article.

Toronto Star Op-Ed (January 11, 2021)

It is clear that the commission has completed extensive work to date. However, with the second wave underway and the volumes of information that the commission continues to receive, there is much more work to be done to ensure a fulsome report and recommendations.
-Vicki McKenna

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Read the complete op-ed.

Long-Term Care Commission Town Hall (September 10, 2020)

ONA hosted a first telephone town hall for our long-term care members to provide an overview of the long-term care commission, ONA’s plans, and next steps.

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