Some provisions in proposed regulation 'need more attention and thought,' OBA said
The Ontario Bar Association has made a submission on a proposed regulation issued by the Ontario government under the recently passed Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021.
In Jan. 2021, the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care issued Phase 1 Regulation to support the intent of the new long-term care law and address some of the critical areas related to resident care, such as emergency planning, resident safety, staffing, and accountability, enforcement and transparency. The health ministry also invited the affected stakeholders to submit their feedback on the proposed regulation until Feb. 17.
Through its written submission, the OBA called on the provincial government to revise some provisions in the proposed regulation as they “need more attention and thought” and ensure government support for long-term care homes and the protection of the Charter rights.
The OBA cited s. 4 defining the term “caregiver.” Under s. 4, a caregiver must be at least 16 years old and provide support or assistance to meet the needs of a long-term care resident, including social or emotional support.
“From our perspective, there are likely many long-term care residents who derive social and emotional support from their grandchildren, nieces, nephews, etc., who may be under the age of 16 years old,” the OBA wrote.
The OBA noted that imposing an age limit on the definition of caregiver will unduly restrict long-term care residents’ access to caregivers of their choice. With this, the OBA suggested removing the age limit when defining caregivers designated by a long-term care resident or their substitute decision-maker.
The OBA also cited s. 268 requiring long-term care homes to maintain visitor logs, including the purpose of the visit.
“We appreciate that a long-term care home may need the name and contact information for visitors for contact tracing and other reasons,” the OBA wrote. “However, the purpose of the visit does not appear to be information required by long-term care homes to fulfill obligations, such as contact tracing.”
The OBA added that requiring visitors to indicate the purpose of their visit may compromise a long-term care resident’s privacy rights. Thus, the OBA suggested deleting the requirement that visitor logs outline the visit’s purpose.
The OBA also sought to include definite language in the proposed regulation to allow regulated health professionals to carry out duties in long-term care homes within their full scope of practice as outlined in the Regulated Health Professions Act and other relevant laws.
“Allowing regulated health professionals to perform duties in a long-term care home within their full scope of practice will allow for staffing flexibility which will help alleviate pressures of the current and ongoing staffing crisis,” the OBA wrote.
