On April 30, the Ontario’s Long-Term Care COVID-19 Commission released its final report. RNAO has followed the work of the Commission, met more than once with the commissioners and contributed substantially to their work. Here is RNAO’s media release in response to the Commission’s final report.

RNAO’s media release on March 24 responded to the presentation of the Ontario budget in the legislature. RNAO is disappointed the government is failing to make the investments desperately needed to help nurses in the fight against COVID-19 and to sustain the nursing workforce after the pandemic.

The Ontario government must remain focused on vaccinating all Ontarians as quickly and seamlessly as possible. RNAO's urging is to maintain stringent public health measures to mitigate the spread of new variants and to accelerate the vaccine rollout plan. Success will come only through an all-hands-on-deck approach and that means utilizing every available public health nurse, primary care nurse, and home care nurse in the province – as well as family physicians and pharmacists.

RNAO sent the following letter on February 10 to Premier Doug Ford and Minister of Health Christine Elliott to convey our thoughts and priorities regarding the rollout. We also expressed our concerns regarding the premature lifting of the lockdown.

Ontario’s vaccination roll-out has stumbled out of the gate. Please take a moment to set things right. Join us in urging Premier Doug Ford to start Phase 2 of the roll-out by putting vaccinations into the hands of the thousands of nurses, physicians and pharmacists working in community care across this province. By making use of existing community care providers and their existing infrastructure, the vaccination roll-out can be accelerated across Ontario.

RNAO is urging that public health and primary care be the healthcare sectors leading the rollout and execution of the COVID-19 vaccination. As you read in our press release last week, RNAO also asserts that home care has a vital role to play in the vaccination rollout. We are grateful for the following contribution from Shirlee Sharkey, CEO of SE Health. RNAO wholeheartedly supports the approach presented by Shirlee.

In our report last week we confronted the fact that patient-centred care can be a reality or a dream. RNAO’s work with Ontario Health Teams on person-and-family centred-care was at the centre of a BPSO OHT four hour meeting a few weeks ago, and here we have another glimpse, arising from that meeting, on what person-and-family-centred care looks like from the field. The following is a contribution from Judy Smith, who shares a story about her mother-in-law Reta.

Today our focus is on Cuba, a Caribbean island with about 11 million population and a very different economic and political regime. Canadians know Cuba well through their tourist visits – more than one million in 2019. Today, we are interested in a different facet of Cuban society – the community focus of its health system and their success, so far, in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic. There are important insights for us in Ontario.