Stand up for seniors who suffered and died in for-profit LTC

Paul Parkes, pictured above with his daughter Cathy, died in Orchard Villa which is a for-profit long-term care home in Pickering, Ontario. While he lay unresponsive after contracting COVID-19, the home refused to send him to the hospital. Paul died the next day. Cathy recalls that he had signs of starvation and obvious dehydration at his funeral, an awful indication of what he had suffered during the last weeks of his life.

Patricia Crump was Diane Colangelo's mother and was known for her sense of humour. She entered Orchard Villa at 105 pounds. Patricia contracted COVID-19 and was left in her room alone. Her daughter recounts Patricia screaming in pain on the phone while no one came to help her. Patricia died alone in Orchard Villa. Her daughter reported that when Patricia died, she was down to 68 pounds.

These are but two stories of many families whose loved ones suffered before, during, and after the pandemic and continue to suffer in Orchard Villa due to poor care.

We, the Ontario Health Coalition, and Cathy Parkes with the Families of Orchard Villa have launched a court challenge to require Ontario's Ford government to live up to their own long-term care (LTC) legislation and stop giving new licenses and expansions to terrible for-profit LTC corporations. Under the Fixing Long-Term Care Act (2021), the government cannot issue licenses to LTC corporations when their past conduct offers reasonable grounds to believe that the home will be operated in a manner that is prejudicial to its residents' health, safety and welfare.

We are asking the Ontario Superior Court to quash a planned new 30-year license and massive 88-bed expansion to Orchard Villa, a 233-bed LTC home which is owned by the for-profit chain Southbridge.

More than 70 residents – loved ones – died in Orchard Villa during the pandemic of COVID alone. Many others died of choking, after falls, and families describe their fear that their loved ones died of dehydration or starvation. At 30 deaths per 100 residents, this LTC home has one of the worst pandemic death records in Ontario.

The home was so bad that the Canadian government sent in the military to help. The military exposed horrific conditions at Orchard Villa including residents’ mattresses set on the floor so they could not get up, lack of hygiene, and unsafe infection control and medication practices. They found the home was dirty with cockroaches and flies present, a rotten food smell, residents left in soiled “diapers”, residents left without hydration, improper feeding, a resident with a likely fractured hip left without proper care, multiple resident falls without assessment. There was poor access to supplies. Not only were residents on bare mattresses without linens, but there were also scarce wound care supplies, oxygen generators without oxygen, and broken suction units.

The military’s findings were not an aberration. Orchard Villa has a history of chronic non-compliance and continues to be cited for poor care in a litany of inspection reports that describe many of the same issues exposed by the military.

The Ford government has chosen to contravene their own legislation to reward Orchard Villa with a massive expansion and new 30-year license. To do so is a denial of fundamental justice for the vulnerable seniors who suffered and died in those horrific conditions – not only during the pandemic but throughout the tenure of Southbridge owning the home with their hideous record – and to their families who have been seeking accountability for more than four years.

Please help if you can.

We need to raise the money to fund this legal challenge and ensure a real "never again". Any and all donations will help. An enormous, heartfelt thank you to those who have already helped us raise a total of $17,000. If you can, please donate (publicly or anonymously) and share this fundraiser widely to stand up for the residents and families of Orchard Villa.

The documents and evidence filed with the court are available here.