4-bed rooms among factors that may have contributed to spread of Parkside outbreak, SHA says
Extendicare says several areas of its Regina Parkside care home which has been gripped by a COVID-19 outbreak that has killed 20 residents were recently found to have extremely poor air flow.
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Nurses union calls for public inquiry into outbreak at Parkside Extendicare cjme.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from cjme.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
By Moises Canales
Dec 15, 2020 5:54 PM
The conditions at a Regina care home currently battling a COVID-19 outbreak has prompted the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses to push for a public inquiry.
Parkside Extendicare is the location of the province’s largest outbreak at this time, which resulted in the Saskatchewan Health Authority and Parkside establishing a co-management agreement so the SHA could step in and assist. Requests for assistance were then made for people to volunteer at the care home since the virus dwindled their staffing numbers over the last couple weeks.
Tracy Zambory, president of SUN, said they have heard from their members who were called in to help with the situation that the facility is in “absolute turmoil.” She added how the health care workers at Parkside are doing the best they can with what they have while trying hard to keep people’s dignity, but it has turned chaotic.
REGINA The Saskatchewan Union of Nurses is calling for a government inquiry into conditions at Extendicare Parkside, following 18 COVID-19-related deaths at the facility. The union is expressing concerns about conditions found inside the facility that currently has 180 active cases among residents and staff. “Very dirty, unkempt. The resident’s rooms were not clean and very cluttered, very disordered. Most of the equipment is in ill repair,” Tracy Zambory, the president of the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses, said. Outside nurses have been called into the facility to fill in for some of the 76 staff members who have tested positive for COVID-19. They were called in by the Saskatchewan Health Authority, which has taken over daily operations.
SASKATOON The COVID-19 pandemic continues to take a heavy toll on health care workers, says Tracy Zambory, president of the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses. “I just received today, a personal message from a member who is really feeling burnt out and tired,” she told CTV News. “During these hard times of the deployment, being pulled from your workplace, going to another, worried about their health and safety, of their patients health and safety, then worried about their family s health and safety, ‘Am I taking anything home to my family’, and just the general pressures of the system.” Zambory says she’s heard stories of nurses holding the cell phones and iPads so that patients can have “perhaps the last conversation with a loved one.”