The controversy is becoming more and more heated. Last year, the Ontario premier Doug Ford pledged to make air conditioning mandatory in every nursing home, including residents’ rooms, but his government awarded construction contracts for new facilities that don’t include air conditioning systems throughout the building.
According to the building standards of the province, new nursing homes are not obliged to install air conditioning in the residents’ rooms: the clear consequence is that on scorching summer days, is that those most vulnerable to dehydration and related diseases suffer.
The standards, which have not been reviewed since 2015, are out of step with Ford’s promise that new-build facilities will be “state-of-the-art.” In March alone, his government awarded contracts to build 36 new homes and renovate 44 of the existing ones.
However, the design model for new long-term care homes excludes residents’ bedrooms from the obligation to have a “mechanical system to cool the air temperature” that is provided instead in common areas, such as dining rooms and living rooms.
In essence, the provincial premier announced a series of projects for the construction of LTC but did not update the design model and as a result, the situation is destined to remain the same.
Jane Meadus, an activist with the Toronto-based Advocacy Centre for the Elderly, said LTC officials told her at the time that they had no plans to review the model. “It’s quite ridiculous — she said — and if you’re forced to stay in bed?”
Recently, on May 27, LTC Minister Merrilee Fullerton, when she announced that all 626 homes in the province have designated areas where air conditioners are present, made no mention of the design models. However, a Fullerton spokeswoman told The Globe and Mail that the ministry “is now planning to review the model for newly built homes requiring them to be fully air-conditioned, including senior rooms.”
The lack of air conditioning in the province’s older homes came under scrutiny during a heatwave last summer, when residents were confined to their rooms in many homes where Covid outbreaks had broken out.
Meanwhile, doctors warn of the risks that people who are most vulnerable to heat. “With age, the feeling of thirst decreases and obviously increases the risk of dehydration,” said Amit Arya, a palliative care specialist who works in long-term care homes in the Greater Toronto Area.
In Ontario, just under 13% of LTC did not have an air conditioning system last year. Then came Ford’s promise and the hope that the situation would change was rekindled. Eleven months later, only 60% of homes in the province have air conditioning systems. The rest only has designated areas where you can defend yourself from the heat. “But the common areas are not easily accessible for many residents, who end up spending most of the day in their rooms in the heat,” said Vivian Stamatopoulos, a professor at Ontario Technical University who specializes in family care. A year later, history repeats itself, the promise has not been kept.
