Healthcare union calls for military's help with 'warzone' conditions at Grace Villa

The healthcare union representing roughly 184 staff at Grace Villa Nursing Home in Hamilton sent a letter to the federal government pleading for it to have the military help workers manage the outbreak, which is the largest and deadliest in the city.

Sharleen Stewart, president of SEIU Healthcare, said the union sent the letter on Friday, but hasn't heard back.

"I'm getting emails and texts from our members literally begging us to help them out. They, themselves, are describing the conditions in there as being like a 'war zone' and they begged us to ask the armed forces to come in ... the numbers continue to rapidly increase. Like, by the hour we're getting reports, when we can get them, of numbers climbing," she said.

"I am really quite disturbed by the fact we have not gotten a response from the province or the federal government on this."

The outbreak at Grace Villa has infected 172 people, and 41 are new cases. It includes 115 residents and 58 staff.

Nineteen people have died there.

Lack of staff is helping the virus spread

Stewart said the conditions in the home began to deteriorate on Saturday and the virus began to spread throughout the home.

The supply of N95 masks began to run out and a lack of sanitization became a growing issue.

"We've got two members who are in the hospital right now. One of them is a single mother with four children at home ... some of the workers are getting infected who are not working on a COVID floor," Stewart said,

"The infection control practices in there are being jeopardized because of the shortage of environmental services staff. They can't keep up to it."

Workers, whom Stewart described as "exhausted and terrified," said the union held a rally in front of the home to draw more attention to the outbreak in the home and get more help.

Dr. Elizabeth Richardson, Hamilton's medical officer of health, said on Monday during a media update Grace Villa needed "a lot of support and assistance" when the outbreak began. It led public health to write an order and allow local hospitals to support.

"We've been continuing to meet with the ministry of long-term care who is ultimately responsible in terms of the home and further measures beyond that and we've been providing them with all the information sharing our concerns as well with them to encourage them to move forward with further measures."

Janette West, executive director at Grace Villa, declined to comment and forwarded the interview request to Mary Raithby, CEO of APANS Health Services (which owns Grace Villa). Raithby has yet to respond.