The New Brunswick Nurses Union (NBNU) presents, The Forgotten Generation:
An Urgent Call for Reform in New Brunswick’s Long-Term Care Sector. 

Our report is not the first to deal with seniors and nursing home care in this province – there have been others – 16 since 2004.  That New Brunswick could have arrived at this moment despite all of them is only one of the many shameful findings our report lays out. We cannot assign this broken system the task of reforming itself.  We must have an inquiry into long-term care in this province under the terms of The Inquiries Act – and there is no time to lose.

More than 500 unionized registered nurses (RNs) providing care to nursing home residents have bravely stepped forward to sound alarm bells that should shock us all into action. RNs report that residents at their homes are not being regularly toileted 63% of the time. Residents are not regularly bathed 57% of the time. Residents in nursing homes are not properly exercised 89% of the time – which can lead to muscle weakness, bed sores and rapid deteriorations in a resident’s health. As one RN quoted in our report told us, “we are neglecting our elderly – plain and simple.”

It does not end there. Footcare, medical referrals, updates to charts and outreach to families are also not being consistently done – all the result of a system that has weakened year-over-year, to a point where it scarcely resembles healthcare at all.

Nearly half the nursing homes in New Brunswick failed to meet their mandated safe staffing ratios in 2019. Inspections of nursing home infrastructure and fire safety also reveal worryingly high levels of non-compliance. With what consequence? Sadly, such issues are only the tip of the iceberg.  We can no longer assume that the Department of Social Development is catching – or is even aware of – many of the risks our most vulnerable seniors face in New Brunswick homes.  Social Development, as our report makes clear, is no longer up to the task.

The light our report shines on Social Development’s oversight record is devastating. NBNU’s analysis found serious inconsistencies in major incident reporting, safety and infrastructure inspections, safe staffing, and the issuing of non-compliance orders. Upon reading our report, Dr. Mario Levesque of Mount Allison University declared that the sector was “akin to being self-regulated.”

Years of budget and staffing cuts have taken their toll – exacerbated by constant calls from nursing homes themselves to ease back on regulations even more. Safety standards are falling, staffing levels are falling, oversight has declined – the only thing that continues to rise are the levels of illness RNs see in their residents.  Our parents and grandparents. The forgotten generation.

Our report also features interviews with half-a-dozen former ministers of social development. They paint a grim picture. Many now support moving responsibility for nursing homes to the Department of Health. All believe there is a desperate need for reform. None had a plan to accomplish it. This is why a provincial inquiry is so badly needed. Our leaders are at a loss, with little in the way of reliable data to help them. Government has run out of ideas. The inquiry we have called for must have the power to send for persons, papers and records and to examine witnesses under oath – only then can we be sure that our Government knows what is happening in our nursing homes what must be done to restore confidence. The frantic and desperate decision-making must end.

That desperation has led our leaders to begin turning the care of our most vulnerable over the private sector, with predictably worrying results. The lack of data, transparency and accountability makes it nearly impossible for New Brunswickers to know what standards of care private nursing homes are providing with our tax dollars but reports recently done in other provinces speak plainly enough. The British Columbia Seniors Advocate recently found that private nursing homes in B.C. had endangered seniors by failing to deliver hundreds of thousands of funded care hours. NBNU has asked New Brunswick’s seniors advocate to conduct a similar investigation, but that is nowhere near enough.

You will hear voices in the coming days that will point to the 16 reports done since 2004 and ask why an inquiry is necessary.  You will see politicians of all stripes point the finger at Ottawa, and demand that the Federal Government do more. I urge you, my fellow New Brunswickers, do not let your leaders deflect, do not let them spin, do not let them pass the buck. There is no time for such games, New Brunswick seniors are at risk.

Hundreds of Registered Nurses have stepped forward to speak truth on behalf of thousands of elderly residents who cannot speak-up for themselves. Now its up to all of us to step forward and do the right thing.

The New Brunswick Nurses Union (NBNU) is a labour organization of approximately 6900 Registered Nurses and Nurse Practitioners who are employed in various healthcare facilities throughout the province of New Brunswick. Together, we form a strong and unified voice.