Family member of resident describes 'chaos' at Windsor long-term care home in major COVID-19 outbreak

Over the weekend, Anne Dube called a number of local authorities, including Windsor police, to try and get immediate help for a Windsor long-term care home that is struggling with a major COVID-19 outbreak. 

Dube's mom lives in The Village at St. Clair, a long-term care facility in Windsor that, according to the home, has 55 residents and 34 staff members sick with COVID-19. 

As of Tuesday afternoon, these numbers are not reflected on the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit's website, which says there are 43 residents and 20 staff with the disease. 

After Dube was made aware of the lack of staffing in the home on the weekend, she decided to call the facility's managers. Getting no response back, she said she decided to call the local health unit and even Windsor police, but no one could help. 

"It's very distressing," Dube told CBC News Tuesday. "Not one of those organizations [I called] was able to give me any advice on how to get immediate help for residents in the home. And that, to me, is a huge gap and caused me undue stress." 

She said the scene inside the home is "chaos" and "pitiful," with floors understaffed and residents in distress needing care. 

In a message sent to staff on Sunday, which was shared with CBC News, the home said the outbreak had "spread quickly in the last 24 hours."

The company said members from its central Schlegel Villages support office in Kitchener have been sent to the site.

In a statement to CBC News via email Tuesday, the home said its team is "doing all they can" to support residents.

It continued to say that their team met on Monday with its "designated, regional hospital-based infection prevention and control lead, who confirmed all of the protocols and PPE available are meeting requirement." 

The home also said that the 34 staff members with COVID-19 are at home isolating and so they are bringing in additional support "to fill these spaces until staff can return to work." 

The statement continued to say that the home has a "number" of infection prevention and control measures in place as part of its outbreak management plan, which was reviewed and created in partnership with public health. These measures, it said, include: 

• Weekly testing of all staff. 
• Testing symptomatic residents. 
• Use of gowns, gloves, masks, goggles, face shields and N-95 masks for aerosolized medical procedures. 
• Quarantine and cohorting measures for residents who test positive. 
• In-depth screening of anyone entering the building, including temperature checks. 
• Daily PPE and ongoing hand hygiene audits. 
• Monthly infection prevention and control audits done by the Schegel Villages clinical team. 
• Collaborating with public health and local hospital partners. 

More PPE has arrived at the home for workers

Tullio Diponti, president of Local Unifor 2458 which represents workers at the facility, told CBC News Tuesday that more N95 masks have finally arrived at the home, as staff treating COVID-19 positive patients had been complaining about the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE). 

"Here we are Dec. 15 and we're fighting over a mask, something that could save people's lives, which is disgusting and it can't happen," he said. 

In its statement Tuesday, the home said that staff have never been without the appropriate PPE and that they have started giving out the new N-95 masks. 

But Dipointi said that in order for staff to receive a mask, they are being asked to sign a waiver that asks them to acknowledge that although they are receiving an N95 mask they realize that it may or may not "fit my face properly." 

Diponti also confirmed that staff are stretched thin and need more support. 

"The residents in these facilities deserve more," he said.

"The residents need the care that they deserve and we can't give it with working short all the time ... We have members that cry going into work cause they know that they're attached to that resident that they're taking care of but at this point in time because they're working so short they may not give them what he or she deserves because they don't have enough staff to do it." 

In an email to CBC News, the Ministry of Long-Term Care sent its condolences "to everyone affected by the outbreak at The Village at St. Clair – residents, their families, and staff."

The ministry said it is "working directly alongside the local public health unit, the local health integration network, Hotel Dieu Grace Hospital and other health sector partners to stabilize the home." It did not say what specific supports or assistance it was providing.

Dube said the outbreak is another example of a system that needs to be fixed.

"We need to transition to a better system that will look after the seniors in a caring home-like environment with enough staff to provide the compassionate care that our seniors deserve," said Dube, whose mom is currently in palliative care, but has lived in the home since March 2016. 

Over the years, Dube said the lack of staffing has been a constant issue and she's advocated for increased supports.