Via the Canadian Institute for Health Information: Long-term care and COVID-19: The first 6 months.
March 30, 2021 — The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected Canada’s retirement homes and long-term care (LTC) homes. Our release takes a closer look at the impact of COVID-19 on LTC residents and staff during the first 6 months of the pandemic (known as Wave 1) and provides early comparisons of outbreaks, cases and deaths between the first and second waves (to February 15, 2021).
Key findings
• COVID-19 cases among residents of LTC and retirement homes increased by nearly two-thirds during Wave 2 compared with Wave 1.
• Compared with pre-pandemic years, in Wave 1, LTC residents had fewer physician visits; fewer hospital transfers; and less contact with friends and family, which is associated with higher rates of depression.
• In all provinces where it could be measured, the total number of resident deaths was higher than normal during this period, even in places with fewer COVID-19 deaths.
• Provincial and national inquiries (to date) on COVID-19 in LTC have made similar recommendations and speak to long-standing concerns in the sector.
Download the CIHI report here.
CBC News has published a news story: Canada's nursing homes have worst record for COVID-19 deaths among wealthy nations: report. Excerpt:
Canada has the worst record for COVID-19 deaths in long-term care homes compared with other wealthy countries, according to a new report released on Tuesday by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).
The study found that the proportion of deaths in nursing homes represented 69 per cent of Canada's overall COVID-19 deaths, which is significantly higher than the international average of 41 per cent.
In Canada, between March 2020 and February 2021, more than 80,000 residents and staff members of long-term care homes were infected with the coronavirus. Outbreaks occurred in 2,500 care homes, resulting in the deaths of 14,000 residents, according to the report.
"COVID-19 has exacted a heavy price on Canada's long-term care and retirement homes, resulting in a disproportionate number of outbreaks and deaths," the report's introduction says.
The study, which primarily focused on the first six months of the pandemic, found that across the country, nursing home residents received less medical care. They had fewer visits from doctors, and there were also fewer hospital transfers when compared with other years.
Researchers also looked beyond the coronavirus to all deaths in care homes.
"Resident deaths — for all causes, not just from COVID-19 infection — increased by 19 per cent in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador," the report said. "There were 2,273 more deaths than the average in the five years prior to COVID-19, with the largest increase occurring in April 2020."
Last spring, Ontario experienced the largest increase in "excess deaths" at 28 per cent, while B.C. had the smallest at just four per cent, the study found.
"It really tells us that there were things that we could have done to avoid a lot of the deaths that we saw in Canada and that countries, frankly, that were better prepared prior to the pandemic, that had better funded systems, they performed far better than Canada has," said Dr. Samir Sinha, director of health policy research and co-chair at the National Institute on Ageing, a partner in the study with CIHI.
"Relative to other nations in the world, Canada has actually the worst record overall."
