Turf wars kept specialists out of LTC homes during first outbreak: Doctor
Article content
Turf wars and bureaucratic red tape kept two dozen Ontario infection control experts out of long-term care homes in the early stages of COVID-19 at a time when they were most needed, the long-term care commission heard recently.
In frank testimony, Dr. Gary Garber, formerly of Public Health Ontario, told the three-member hearing he and his team of 25-30 certified infection control practitioners were told to “keep a low profile” when COVID hit in March of 2020.
Recommended Videos
tap here to see other videos from our team.
Turf wars kept specialists out of LTC homes during first outbreak: Doctor Back to video
tap here to see other videos from our team.
He said that came after a realignment of services in late January of last year — as a cost-saving measure — that gave precedence to communicable diseases and forced the formerly separate infection prevention and control (IPAC) team to report through “several layers” of leadership to get anything done.
The long-time infectious disease and infection control specialist, who left Public Health Ontario last November, said he was given the message to keep his head down so “no one chops it off” and that his IPAC team should have a “lower profile” in the pandemic.
When the outbreaks in LTC homes increased in number and his team members — with expertise of 10 years or more — wanted to go in to investigate and make recommendations to nursing homes in outbreak, he said they were told: “No, we don’t have the bandwidth for that … no, we can’t do that … no, it’s up to the health unit … they can call us in when they need it.”
Garber said he tried hard to give the message to his team that IPAC was still important, but by November of last year 10 senior experienced people left the agency.
“There was a real frustration … that these people with expertise were not able to basically help out,” he said.
tap here to see other videos from our team.
At the end of April, some of the IPAC team members did go into some of the homes, but it was essentially after they had come out of outbreak and not at a time “where things were at their worst,” Garber said
He told the commission it was a “lost opportunity” at the time because the expertise around “cohorting” was not in long-term care homes and not in many health units.
Garber added that those IPAC team members who stayed with Public Health Ontario expressed “a lot of burnout” because of their “frustration with what they couldn’t do.”
Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.