Alberta Auditor General finds systemic failings plagued long-term care COVID measures
'Continuing care facilities serve some of the most vulnerable of our society,' said Auditor General Doug Wylie. 'These are our parents, grandparents and friends who deserve to be kept safe.'
Insufficient preparedness, severe care staffing shortages, and outdated infrastructure were among the key findings in Albert's Auditor General's report into the response to COVID in the province's long-term care facilities.
According to Thursday's press release, Auditor General Doug Wylie determined that Alberta Health and Alberta Health Services (AHS) found that COVID protocols used in LTC facilities were ineffective, and the problem of systemic lack of preparedness was not new.
Auditor General Doug Wylie said:
Continuing care facilities serve some of the most vulnerable of our society. These are our parents, grandparents and friends who deserve to be kept safe.
The COVID-19 response was impeded by insufficient preparedness and structural barriers—many of which have been long-standing—that existed at the start of the pandemic.
Yet, we consistently saw examples of people across the continuing care system adapting, finding workarounds and temporary solutions to structural problems, and a genuine effort to critically evaluate what was working and what was not, so that they could continuously improve their response over time.
We cannot overstate the dedication, focus, and care shown by people across the system in responding to COVID-19.
It is critical that this same unwavering effort now be directed to learn from these experiences and make the necessary improvements to better care for our vulnerable seniors.
The audit examined four critical areas of Alberta's COVID-19 response as it related to long-term and continuing care facilities.
Those areas included pre-pandemic planning and preparedness; communication between provincial authorities and continuing care facilities; distribution of resources to LTC facilities; and monitoring the effectiveness of the collaborative COVID response.
See the auditor's findings here.
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