The for-profit company that owns Parkview Place is ramping up efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19 by bringing in new staff and paying to have every resident tested.
This comes after Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) staff entered the residence last weekend for the first time since March and found numerous deficiencies including lack of cleaning, lack of staff knowledge of outbreak protocols and the need for more medical and clinical staff.
Ninety-seven of the home’s 221 residents — 44 per cent — have tested positive for the novel coronavirus since the outbreak began on Sept. 15, based on Parkview’s most recent occupancy figures.
Revera says it engaged Dynacare on Friday to test all residents at Parkview Place as part of a pilot project in order to accelerate the testing process and inform efforts to cohort and isolate residents.
Dynacare is the same private lab that’s analyzing some of the swabs for the provincial COVID-19 testing program.
“We appreciate the support of the WRHA in approving this Revera-funded solution to accelerate testing of our residents,” said Dr. Rhonda Collins, Revera’s chief medical officer who is registered to practice in Ontario.
Collins said more than 200 residents have been tested to date.
Twenty-six staff members have also tested positive, which is straining Parkview’s ability to deliver resident care.
Call for all staff to be tested
Revera says it is advocating for all-staff surveillance testing in all jurisdictions where it operates over the world.
“In areas of high community spread, this can be a valuable tool in helping us identify asymptomatic carriers early,” said Collins in a written statement.
Collins noted surveillance testing for all long-term care employees initiated by the Government of Ontario this summer identified numerous asymptomatic staff who, had they not been tested, would have unwittingly spread the virus.
Asymptomatic health care providers are not routinely tested for COVID-19 in Manitoba but they may be offered testing if they have been exposed to a case according to a Health Department spokesperson.
“Public health has continually revisited its advice on testing as the science develops, especially for vulnerable populations,” said the spokesperson. “[F]uture decisions on offering asymptomatic testing for staff who have not been exposed to a case will be made based on scientific data.”
Revera said that when the WRHA visited last weekend, the evening staffing fell “short of the target” because an unspecified number of staff were self-isolating due to the virus.
“Essential care did not suffer during those temporary shortages. All eyes and efforts remain focused on resident care and infection control,” said Collins.
She says staffing levels have stabilized at Parkview this week because some permanent staff who previously tested positive have been cleared to return to work.
In addition to an onsite pharmacist provided by the WRHA last week, Parkview Place has:
added front line and management staff from other Revera locations, with WRHA approval.
hired new employees.
committed to bringing in agency staff for a number of different roles to support the home’s clinical, recreation and environmental services staff.
Parkview will be able to access staff recruited through last week’s provincial call for staff, which resulted in hiring 11 registered nurses, two health care aides,one respiratory therapist and one physiotherapist, according to a Manitoba Health Department spokesperson.
Manitoba Health did not specify how many, if any, of the new workers went to Parkview Place. Revera did not quantify the total number of staff it added.
Dedicated on-site physician touted by health minister does not exist
Manitoba Health Minister Cameron Friesen has said there was a dedicated on-site physician at Parkview since mid-October. Revera says it does not have a full-time physician. (David Lipnowski/The Canadian Press)
Revera says the WRHA is sending a dedicated full-time Nurse Practitioner to start working in-person at Parkview Place starting Monday.
This announcement comes a week after Manitoba’s Health Minister Cameron Friesen repeatedly said Parkview now has an on-site physician in multiple interviews with media.
“Everyone is working very, very hard at Parkview Place. We know that we now have a dedicated physician on-site,” said Friesen in a press conference on Oct.16. He repeated the same claim twice the day before when questioned about what the province was doing to curb its deadliest outbreak to date.
“If by ‘dedicated’ you mean full-time, then the answer is no,” wrote a spokesperson for Revera when asked if Parkview had a dedicated on-site physician
Revera did say its local medical director, Dr. Bharat Shah, “is completing on-site rounds,” but did not specify when he restarted in-person visits after pausing them due to the pandemic. She said the role of medical director is not a full-time job.
Minister Friesen, who has not held a press conference in more than a week, did not respond to multiple requests for comment about his statements.
Parkview Place located in hot zone
Collins says downtown Winnipeg has more active cases than anywhere else in Manitoba.
“The level of community spread is a direct predictor of the potential for, and severity of, an outbreak of COVID-19 in long-term care,” said Collins.
She said staff are grieving the deaths of residents and the pandemic has been incredibly difficult for the people who work in long-term care.
“Everyone at Parkview Place is focused on providing care to residents and stopping the spread of this devastating virus,” Collins said.
The Canadian government says it will donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to fight the mpox outbreak in Congo and other African countries.
It says the donated doses of Imvamune will come from Canada’s existing supply and will not affect the country’s preparedness for mpox cases in this country.
Minister of Health Mark Holland says the donation “will help to protect those in the most affected regions of Africa and will help prevent further spread of the virus.”
Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada research chair in epidemiology and global health, says although the donation is welcome, it is a very small portion of the estimated 10 million vaccine doses needed to control the outbreak.
Vaccine donations from wealthier countries have only recently started arriving in Africa, almost a month after the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
A few days after the declaration in August, Global Affairs Canada announced a contribution of $1 million for mpox surveillance, diagnostic tools, research and community awareness in Africa.
On Thursday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said mpox is still on the rise and that testing rates are “insufficient” across the continent.
Jason Kindrachuk, Canada research chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba, said donating vaccines, in addition to supporting surveillance and diagnostic tests, is “massively important.”
But Kindrachuk, who has worked on the ground in Congo during the epidemic, also said that the international response to the mpox outbreak is “better late than never (but) better never late.”
“It would have been fantastic for us globally to not be in this position by having provided doses a much, much longer time prior than when we are,” he said, noting that the outbreak of clade I mpox in Congo started in early 2023.
Clade II mpox, endemic in regions of West Africa, came to the world’s attention even earlier — in 2022 — as that strain of virus spread to other countries, including Canada.
Two doses are recommended for mpox vaccination, so the donation may only benefit 100,000 people, Pai said.
Pai questioned whether Canada is contributing enough, as the federal government hasn’t said what percentage of its mpox vaccine stockpile it is donating.
“Small donations are simply not going to help end this crisis. We need to show greater solidarity and support,” he said in an email.
“That is the biggest lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic — our collective safety is tied with that of other nations.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
