Update:
Premier Doug Ford announced today that the government is increasing the hours of direct care for each long-term care resident to an average of four hours per day.
The announcement was made in advance of the release of Ontario's 2020 Budget, which will be unveiled on Thursday.
This new commitment to improve quality of care includes:
- Average daily direct care of four hours a day per resident
- Hard targets set over the next four years to achieve this standard by 2024-25
- Unprecedented changes to educate and recruit the tens of thousands of new personal support workers, registered practical nurses and registered nurses that will be required.
In a press release issued today, the government it is recruiting an additional 3,700 frontline workers for its health workforce.
Original story:
Premier Doug Ford is slated to make an announcement at 1:00 p.m. today.
It is expected that the Ontario government will announce a promise to establish a new standard of care in long-term care homes that would allow residents to receive an average of four hours of direct care everyday.
The government says long-term care residents currently receive an average of 2.75 hours of direct care per day.
Ford will be joined by Rod Phillips, Minister of Finance, and Merrilee Fullerton, Minister of Long-Term Care, to make the announcement in Mississauga.
Village Media will carry the livestream, so stay tuned.