Phil Lillies tucks his wife, Anne Laven, into bed on June 18, 2015.FRED LUM/The Globe and Mail
A Globe and Mail investigation into Ontario's home-care system has won the award for best series in a daily newspaper from the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario.
Reporters Kelly Grant and Elizabeth Church conducted a three-month investigation that found a system plagued by underfunding, inconsistent standards of care and a lack of transparency that make it virtually impossible for patients and their family members to determine what government-funded health care they are entitled to in their houses or in community settings such as assisted-living centres.
Since the series was published, the provincial government has announced a policy to eliminate the bureaucratic middlemen in home-care delivery – the Community Care Access Centres – and promised to establish new standards of care to ensure consistency in services across the province.
"This is an important recognition of our commitment to investigative journalism that serves the public interest," said Editor-in-Chief David Walmsley. "The series exposed alarming gaps in the provision of home care, and brought much-needed transparency to patients and their families, and compelled action on a system that was clearly broken."
A panel of 12 judges comprised of nurses and journalists selected the award winners from dozens of entries.