Complaints about lack of ‘courtesy,’ ‘respect’ in hospitals spiked during pandemic’s second year, watchdog says
Ontario's patient ombudsman says his office saw a spike in complaints during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic from people who felt treated with a lack of sensitivity, caring, courtesy or respect" in emergency rooms and elsewhere in hospitals.
Those complaints were up 43 per cent over the previous year, Craig Thompson said in his latest annual report to be released Tuesday.
Like many of you, we are seeing signs of strain, stress and a system doing its very best to persevere in the face of ongoing challenges," he wrote.
The pandemic has exposed existing vulnerabilities in our health system that are seen in the rising number of complaints that touch on the lack of access to care, lack of adequate staffing, and a general sense of fatigue," Thompson added.
Almost 100 of the 2,005 complaints about hospitals involved descriptions of negative interactions" with hospital security guards, such as being restrained in an unsafe manner," including a knee on the back or neck.
Most interactions with security occurred in emergency departments, on mental health units and at screening points for entry to hospitals," Thompson said, noting patient-relations staff often defer to hospital security and do not take an active role in reviewing these complaints."
However, some have undertaken comprehensive reviews of such incidents and were considering a requirement that security guards wear body cameras, he added.
The report from the patient ombudsman - a position created by the previous Liberal government six years ago - covers the time period from April 2021 to the end of March last year. The office, with 20 staff, has jurisdiction over public hospitals, long-term care homes and home and community care services.
Many health organizations continue to report staffing shortages due in part to illness, which results in longer wait times in hospital and delays in accessing home care," Thompson noted.
The 36-page report follows on repeated concerns from nurses, doctors and other health-care professionals about pressures the pandemic put on them, including Premier Doug Ford's Bill 124 wage restraint legislation that limited nurses and most other public sector workers to raises of one per cent annually.
Bill 124 has been blamed for high turnover rates in health care during a pandemic that put front-line workers at greater risk of illness. The bill was struck down by a court last year as unconstitutional but the Ford government is appealing that decision.
The office received 3,306 complaints in the 12-month period, referring almost 1,256 people to patient relations workers at health-care organizations for help.
Just over 60 per cent of complaints were about hospitals, 10 per cent on long-term care homes and seven per cent on home and community care, with the remainder on other health-care issues.
Complaints about home and community care most frequently involved concerns about delays and access, specifically that the level of service provided was insufficient," the report found.
Rob Ferguson is a Toronto-based reporter covering Ontario politics for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @robferguson1