NDP MPP Wayne Gates (Niagara Falls) is demanding immediate action at Oakwood Park Lodge long-term care home in Niagara Falls
A News Release rom the Constituency Office of Niagara Falls Constituency Office of NDP MPP Wayne Gates
Posted December 22nd, 2020 on Niagara At Large
Niagara Falls NDP MPP Wayne Gates. File photo
NIAGARA FALLS —NDP MPP Wayne Gates (Niagara Falls) is demanding immediate action at Oakwood Park Lodge long-term care home in Niagara Falls, where an outbreak of COVID-19 has infected at least 90 residents at the 153-bed facility, as well as 60 staff members, and nine lives have already been lost.
“I am hearing from residents, staff and worried family members about what’s happening at Oakwood Park Lodge. It’s clear the Ford government needs to step in immediately and take over this home. Lives are at stake and there isn’t a minute to waste,” said Gates.
Gates says he has received complaints of chronic understaffing, inadequate PPE and lack of communication from the owners of the home, Conmed, a for-profit corporation.
“If we have this many people with COVID-19 in that home, and only a handful of PSWs left trying to care for them – it’s a complete disaster. The Ministry needs to step in now to take over this home and get more staff there right now,” said Gates.
Gates also revealed that that many of the frontline workers at Oakwood Park Lodge are now self-isolating without pay. “We’ve heard appalling stories from this home of PSWs having to work without proper PPE putting themselves, and their families, at risk. At least 60 have now been infected, and have to stay home without pay during the holidays,” said Gates.
The Oakwood Place Long-Term Care facility in Niagara, Falls, Ontario – another Petri dish for COVID-19, courtesy of the neglect of the province’s Ford government. We certainly don’t want to properly staff and inspect these homes. do we? Not when powerful friends in the private sector are operating so many of them.
Gates says the Ford government must deploy every resource available, including sending in the Red Cross or the Canadian Armed Forces, to save lives before it’s too late.
“We have to move quickly to protect these residents and ensure they have the care they need to fight the virus. The Ford government must take action immediately if we are to contain the spread of COVID-19 in this home and prevent more deaths,” said Gates.
For a report from CHCH News on this latest disaster involving a Long-Term Care home in Niagara, Ontario, click on – https://www.chch.com/niagaras-oakwood-park-lodge-in-building-wide-covid-19-outbreak/ .
A Footnote from Doug Draper at Niagara At Large –
Ontario Ford government and Niagara West MPP speaking to a “right to life”/anti abortion base of the Ford government at Queen’s Park in May, 2019. Where is the right to life for people working and living in Ontario’s long-term care homes?
We know that Ontario Premier Doug Ford and other members of his Conservative parties who identify as good evangelical Christians and right-to-live advocates, have a soft spot for unborn fetuses, and that may be okay.
But where in hell is there soft spot for our seniors in Long-Term Care homes across the province and the over-worked and under-paid staff doing their best to look after them?
Stop giving us this right-to-life bullshit if you don’t do more to help these people!
You won’t even mandate paid leave for the staff if they get sick working these homes get sick, God Damn It!
To read a recent piece Niagara At Large posted on the disgusting way the Ford government is handling this issue, click on – https://niagaraatlarge.com/2020/12/21/long-term-home-care-staff-continue-getting-the-shaft-from-ontarios-ford-government/
For more news on the Ontario Ford government’s right to life/anit-abortion crusade for its radical evangelical base, click on – https://globalnews.ca/news/5261392/sam-oosterhoff-abortion-comments/
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Niagara At Large 
Love your footnote Doug and totally agree. Protect the fetus, which is their PRIVATE right and their PERSONAL choice that they try to impose on others, but what about after they’re born, especially when they get old. The elderly in those homes went through depressions, wars and tribulations we spoiled boomers can’t imagine. They were the ones who made life easy for us and for people like Ford and Oosterhoff.
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