Progress on recommendations from Maples outbreak report 'not good enough,' family member says

A year after Manitoba's deadliest COVID-19 care home outbreak, an advocate for families of personal care home residents affected by the pandemic has a blunt assessment of the provincial government's progress on recommendations.

"Not good enough," said Eddie Calisto-Tavares, whose father was one of the people who died as a result of the outbreak at Maples Personal Care Home in Winnipeg.

The outbreak, which was declared on Oct. 20, 2020, and ended the following January, led to 56 deaths. A total of 231 Maples residents and staff became infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 over the course of the outbreak.

The province released a progress report on Friday, stating it had completed nine of the 17 recommendations made in a report by Dr. Lynn Stevenson in the wake of the outbreak. All short-term recommendations and all recommendations related to the Maples facility are completed, the province said.

Those recommendations included clarifying roles and procedures in the event of an outbreak, beefing up housekeeping and cleaning and ensuring daily physician rounds once an outbreak has been declared.

Calisto-Tavares called those completed recommendations "basic."

"They were things that should have been in place already," she said. 

"So if we're measuring their success against those nine recommendations that have been achieved? Well, shame on them."

Other recommendations yet to be completed include calls for the province to implement a "robust" workforce plan for personal care homes and to review funding for the homes, "to ensure that staffing levels and services provided are appropriate to the complexity of current and future residents."

The report also recommends the province "mandate and fund a provincewide health-care system response for pandemic outbreaks to reduce fragmentation and delays in outbreak response."

Callisto-Tavares also wants to see the province appoint an independent seniors' advocate.

The provincial government released its update one day before the anniversary of the night the severity of the outbreak at Maples became clear.

On Nov. 6, 2020, ambulances were called to the care home because staff were overwhelmed by the number of sick residents, some of whom were already dead.

Calisto-Tavares was there that night, caring for her father. He died from COVID-19 on Nov. 11, 2020.