Jessica Wong, left, was hoping to take her 82-year-old grandmother, Jean Wan Cheung, out of the Tendercare Living Centre in Scarborough amid a COVID-19 outbreak. But on Thursday, her grandmother was diagnosed with COVID-19.Handout
For Andrew Boozary, the faces of the residents at Tendercare Living Centre will stay with him a long time.
“You see the fear in people’s eyes and that loneliness, and I don’t think you can remove those images all that quickly,” Dr. Boozary, a family physician, said after leaving the east-end Toronto long-term care centre on Friday afternoon.
“You’re seeing husband and wife be together, not knowing who is going to survive up there.”
He and his father, Majid Boozary, also a family doctor, responded Christmas Day to an urgent call for help as the centre battles a deadly and growing COVID-19 outbreak.
In Ontario, 2,578 residents in long-term care homes have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic hit. Eight long-term care staff have also died.
Tendercare is one of 162 long-term care homes in the province currently reporting COVID-19 outbreaks. However, the outbreak at the Scarborough facility is by far the worst.
Since it was first reported, in early December, 164 residents have tested positive for COVID-19. Already, 36 of them have died, with 10 succumbing to the virus in the past two days. North York General Hospital has temporarily taken over the private, for-profit home’s management.
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On Friday, a spokesperson for the hospital said there are 112 active COVID-19 cases among the facility’s 177 residents. In a separate statement from Tendercare, the facility said 63 of its staff members have also tested positive.
A critical incident inspection report released this week from the ministry of long-term care found staff were not properly following infection prevention and control rules, for example misusing personal protective equipment, inconsistent availability of the gear outside residents’ rooms, and wearing the same equipment between two different residents’ rooms.
“As a result, the disease spread rapidly throughout the home and there were a number of resident deaths and also a number of residents who have tested positive for the outbreak resulting in actual risk to the residents,” the report found.
“The scope of this noncompliance was widespread.”
Extendicare Inc., which manages Tendercare, did not directly respond to the concerns raised in the inspection report. In a brief statement to The Globe and Mail, a spokesperson said the company is working with the regional hospitals and Tendercare to “to identify any areas where we can provide further assistance.”
In a separate statement from Tendercare, the long-term care home said it “has taken action to ensure compliance.”
“We will continue to explore and access every possible resource to move our home to stable position,” the statement said.
North York General Hospital has had staff working at the centre since Monday, that’s also when the Ontario Medical Association issued an “urgent request” for physicians to pick up shifts at the facility. One doctor who went into the home described it as a physician’s “worst nightmare” and said residents were weak from the illness and lack of food and water.
Dr. Andrew Boozary, a physician at Toronto’s University Health Network, said the need for more staff is still high at the home.
“They need more staff for sure,” he said. “It’s an amazing team in there, they are doing everything they can, but they need more people.”
His father, who was unable to help inside the home because he hadn’t preregistered, waited in the parking lot for his son. After Dr. Andrew Boozary left the long-term care home, he said residents were in need of the most basic of care, from checking vitals to making sure they were getting the proper medication.
Melissa Londono, a spokesperson for North York General, said the hospital has already brought in more physicians and a team of infection-control experts and nurses who are “providing advice, direction, education and support to contain the outbreak, prevent further transmission and meet residents’ care needs.” She said more staff will be added as required.
A senior manager from the hospital is also working at Tendercare full-time to oversee the facility’s operations.
The centre will also undergo a deep clean on Saturday, Ms. Londono said.
Jessica Wong had been planning to take her 82-year-old grandmother, Jean Wan Cheung, out of the home after she learned about the outbreak. But after setting up a room at home and buying the necessary equipment, she learned that her grandmother had also tested positive for COVID-19.
She said the news left her numb. “I feel helpless because I don’t know what else to do,” Ms. Wong said.
While authorities were caught off guard by the pandemic’s first wave, Dr. Andrew Boozary said residents should have been better protected ahead of the second wave.
“It’s heartbreaking to know that it’s happening again and again,” he said. “If it doesn’t surprise us as a society, I hope that it really pushes us as a society … on Christmas, I hope it’s one day to realize that we didn’t deliver.”
“We just need a real commitment to our elderly population. It’s really hard to see.”
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Editor’s note: Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this article did not contain Dr. Andrew Boozary's full name.
Marieke Walsh