Covid-19 Stalked Nursing Homes Around the World
By: Anna Wilde Matthews
“We left the barn door open,” said Dr. Samir Sinha, director of health policy research and co-chair at the National Institute on Ageing, a think tank at Toronto’s Ryerson University which attributes more than 70% of Canada’s approximately 14,000 known Covid-19 deaths to long-term care homes. “It was a tragedy,” he added.
Institute calls for visitor restrictions at long-term care homes to be relaxed
Dr. Samir Sinha with the National Institute on Ageing discusses the consequences of visitor restrictions on long-term care residents.
Flu almost non-existent this year as coronavirus cases rise across Canada
Dr. Sinha says the lack of flu has eased pressures on hospital staff that are already stretched thin by the pandemic. “Our hospitals are absolutely [at] capacity in Ontario, and we’re not coping well already with the current second wave,” he said. “Just imagine if you then put our usual hospitalization volumes related to pneumonia and the flu on top of that. Our system would’ve collapsed weeks ago.”
Visit restrictions and depression in long term care homes
The rules about who can visit care home residents seem to vary widely depending on the home in question. Some care homes only allow visitors who are deemed “essential” while others take a broader view of who may be allowed on the premises.
GUEST: Dr. Samir Sinha, director of health policy research at the NIA
COVID deaths in Scarborough LTC-home climb, new COVID variant in Ontario, virtual restaurants & getting your finances in order for 2021
Dr. Samir Sinha, Director of Health Policy Research at the NIA
Visit restrictions amid COVID-19 caused ‘spike in depression’ in long-term care homes
By Camille Bains
The National Institute on Ageing said families in British Columbia are enduring the most restrictive visitation policies compared with long-term care homes anywhere else in the country. The institute has issued guidelines to support the reopening of care homes to family caregivers and visitors, even during outbreaks.
Long-Term Care Is 'Dangerous.' What’s Ontario’s Plan For Alternatives?
By: Sherina Harris
Canada’s system currently focuses on “warehousing older people” in long-term care homes, Dr. Samir Sinha told HuffPost. That comes at a cost, added Sinha, who is the director of geriatrics at Sinai Health and the health policy research director at the National Institute on Ageing (NIA) at Ryerson University.
Shalom Village outbreak ‘a disaster,’ says Toronto doctor
By: Maria Iqbal
Nathan Stall, Associate Fellow at the NIA, says he raised alarms at the beginning of the outbreak to Larry Levin, the Hamilton long-term-care home’s interim CEO, that if the home didn’t improve staffing levels early, there would be “a lot of death.” “One in three to one in every five residents who get infected will go on to die,” said Stall, a member of the modelling team for Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table who has focused on long-term-care homes during the pandemic. “The number of dead residents at the end of this is going to be absolutely catastrophic.”
Urgent plea for doctors goes out at Toronto-area nursing home hit by COVID-19
By: Karen Howlett
As the number of COVID-19 cases continues to surge, said Nathan Stall, Associate Fellow at the NIA, a breaking point is coming when hospitals won’t have enough staff to support long-term care homes or take acute-care patients from other sites. Dr. Stall himself frequently gets patients from Scarborough and as far away as Brampton. “This is just reflective of the fact that the system is in crisis,” he said. “We keep borrowing resources from areas that aren’t as hard-hit.”
Residents lacking sufficient medication, water at nursing home battling severe COVID-19 outbreak, doctors warn
By: Julia Knope
Dr. Nathan Stall, Associate Fellow at the National Institute on Ageing, said he's unfortunately "not surprised" by the alarming situation that has formed at Tendercare, adding that it's not an isolated incident. "These were things that we saw in the first wave, where you had total decimation of the medical model of care within many of these homes and frankly total decimation of the nursing and personal support care that goes on," he told CBC Toronto on Wednesday.
LTC home with 145 COVID-19 resident cases puts out mayday call as it runs out of staff
By: Karen Howlett
Nathan Stall, Associate Fellow at the National Institute on Ageing said he is getting acute-care patients all the time from Scarborough and as far away as Brampton. “This is just reflective of the fact that the system is in crisis,” Dr. Stall said. “We keep borrowing resources from areas that aren’t as hard hit.”
Read MoreHealth-care workers lining up for COVID-19 vaccine, but some warn of 'real troubles' with hesitancy
By: Lauren Pelley
"We have assumed that if we get a vaccine distributed, that people are going to take it, and I think that's foolhardy based on previous vaccination rates in our province," said Dr. Nathan Stall, Associate Fellow at the National Institute on Ageing.
Read MoreDelayed lockdown could result in 10,000 additional COVID-19 cases in Ontario
By: Kenyon Wallace
“We know the majority of those Ontarians who are going to end up dying are going to be older adults,” said Dr. Samir Sinha, director of health policy research at the National Institute on Ageing. “Right now, we don’t actually have a hospital system, especially in places like Toronto, that have any spare capacity. We’ve already been delaying or cancelling elective procedures and surgeries.”
Read MoreAlarm raised over outside care workers and coronavirus surge in retirement homes
By: Karen Howlett
“All this foot traffic is a recipe for disaster,” said Samir Sinha, the director of health policy research at the National Institute on Ageing in Toronto and a co-author of a new study examining the risk factors for COVID-19 outbreaks in Ontario retirement homes, including the prevalence of third-party caregivers.
Read MoreOntario doctor calls Boxing Day lockdown 'half measures.'
The whole province is being plunged into lockdown come Boxing Day, but is it too late? Dr. Samir Sinha, director of health policy research at the National Institute on Ageing, reflects on the impact the new restrictions could have.
Read MoreStaffing issues, neglect found in past inspections at Windsor LTC home in COVID-19 outbreak
The home has also not had a Resident Quality Inspection (RQI) since 2018, which Director of Health Policy Research at the National Institute on Ageing Dr. Samir Sinha says were essential, until the government decided to switch to a complaints-based inspection system in the last few years. It's not the only one to have lost this. Sinha said that in 2019 only 27 of Ontario's 626 long-term care homes got an RQI, with that number dropping to 11 this year, as of Oct. 15.
Read MoreDr. Samir Sinha on "My COVID-19 Visit Risk"
Are you still debating your holiday plans even though most of the authorities are recommending that we celebrate with our own households only? There’s an online questionnaire to assess your risk depending on your answers to a whole raft of questions. Leading gerontologist, Dr. Samir Sinha, designed the tool called “My Covid Visit Risk” for Ryerson University’s National Institute on Ageing.
Will we ever learn? After a catastrophic first wave, COVID-19 is pummelling long-term care homes again
By: Sharon Kirkey
The “flattening?” It’s gone, geriatrician Dr. Nathan Stall recently tweeted. Despite what he describes as vaccine euphoria, despite promises to prioritize long-term care residents, care is still being compromised. There often aren’t enough eyes to identify who is sick and who is not, and “there is still a lot of winter ahead,” he said.
Hard lockdowns, expanded testing, help for small business: What we need to do now to address COVID-19 crisis
By: Moira Welsh
Dr. Nathan Stall, geriatrics and internal medicine, Mount Sinai
I sound like a broken record, but the greatest risk factor for long-term-care home outbreaks is community transmission.
Rapid testing at seniors facilities began Friday in Alberta
Alberta has expanded its rapid COVID-19 testing pilot project. Symptomatic staff and residents at seniors facilities could get test results in as little as 20 minutes — but there are critiques of the plan over who isn’t being tested featuring an interview with Dr. Samir Sinha, Director of Health Policy Research at the NIA.
