An issue of transparency

Province no longer reporting on LTC outbreaks, declining to confirm whether deaths linked

Since Jan. 17, P.E.I. has not reported updated case counts associated with COVID-19 outbreaks in long-term care homes.

There are currently six long-term care facilities and two community care facilities dealing with outbreaks. Other outbreaks have been reported in shelters, 19 daycares, the province's correctional facility and the Mount Herbert addictions treatment facility. The province is also not reporting case numbers associated with these outbreaks.

Dr. Samir Sinha, a geriatrician and a co-chair of the National Institute on Ageing at Ryerson University, said public health agencies should strive to report regularly on outbreaks in long-term care.

"When you've got good transparency, it allows everyone to understand exactly what's happening,” Sinha said in an interview with SaltWire Network on Jan. 21.

“If there's a home, for example, in outbreak, it (allows) family and friends, who perhaps can't visit their loved ones in the home, to understand exactly what's going on."

Since the first wave of the pandemic, the National Institute on Ageing has maintained a public database of outbreak case numbers linked to long-term care facilities in every province.

Sinha believes detailed reporting helps build trust between families, residents and the health-care system.

“When people are being secretive, if you will, around this sort of information, it doesn't really engender trust," he said.

SaltWire Network asked the provincial Department of Health and Wellness why outbreak numbers are no longer reported.

“Public reporting on numbers at each facility may be changing quickly and may not be reflective even between time of reporting and publication in the media,” read an emailed response received from Samantha Hughes, senior communications officer with the department. “For this reason, the Chief

Public Health Office will now announce when outbreaks are ongoing at a facility as well as when they are declared over.”

Moments after this email was received, a second email from Hughes stated the CPHO is “looking at how they may be able to publish summary numbers on a weekly basis.”

The province's COVID-19 infection control guidelines for long-term care outbreaks says outbreaks can be declared over 28 days after the date in which no new positive cases are detected among residents or staff.

The CPHO has also refused to clarify whether any of the eight deaths reported so far this month have been linked to long-term care. The province has said this is due to privacy concerns.

Nora Loreto, author of the book Spin Doctors: How Media and Politicians Misdiagnosed the COVID-19 Pandemic, has been tracking deaths linked to long-term care facilities since early in the pandemic. Of the 32,217 COVID deaths nationally, 19,234 have been linked to residential care facilities.

In an interview with SaltWire Network on Jan. 24, Loreto says she has heard the arguments about privacy before.

“No one's asking for names. No one's asking for anything more identifying than there is a death in this outbreak related to COVID,” Loreto said.

“To build public trust, public health needs to be as transparent as possible. And people need to understand that this is a virus that does still kill people,” Loreto said.

Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba report COVID-19 deaths related to long-term care on a daily basis. B.C. reports these numbers on a weekly basis.

New Brunswick and Nova Scotia provide long-term care outbreak numbers during COVID briefings. Newfoundland and Labrador, like P.E.I., has also stopped reporting outbreak details altogether.

While Sinha said he was concerned about the lack of reporting, he added he believes P.E.I.'s CPHO had “one of the best track records” in long-term care during the early months of the pandemic. The province also immunized long-term care residents very rapidly in early 2021.

A third dose booster shot of vaccines has also been delivered to 93 per cent of longterm care residents.

Two family members of residents of long-term care facilities dealing with an outbreak, who spoke with the SaltWire Network on the condition of anonymity, said they would like to see the province report daily updates on outbreaks.

STAFF SHORTAGES

Opposition health critic Michele Beaton said regular reporting provides the public with a clear idea of whether outbreaks are under control.

Several long-term care homes had been dealing with staff shortages long before the Omicron variant arrived on P.E.I. Community spread in P.E.I. exacerbated this at a time when infection control protocols – such as cohorting staff and residents in different wings of a building – would require more staff.

“Staff obviously want to meet the level of care that is required,” Beaton said in an interview on Jan. 21.

“But the understaffing that's happening right now is not allowing them to do that. And that is a stressor for staff. It's a stressor for the partner in care.”

Beaton also said it is not clear whether health authorities are following the province's COVID-19 clinical operations plan, which stated a mobile rapid response team would be deployed to help isolate long-term care residents who test positive during an outbreak. The plan, completed in the fall of 2020, also said positive residents would be isolated in a dedicated COVID-19 unit, separate from other staff or residents.