Collingwood’s Sunset Manor ordered to halt new admissions amid claims of serious issues at long-term care home

Inspectors allege abuses, missed medication, resident told to soil themselves instead of getting assistance

The Ministry of Long-Term Care has ordered Collingwood’s Sunset Manor Home for Senior Citizens to halt all new admissions to give it time to address a variety of inspectors’ concerns.

A series of inspections from May 2019 to May 2021 identified a number of compliance issues at the home. These include allegations of a resident being told to soil themselves instead of being provided assistance to the washroom, violence among residents, failure to provide medication or special meal plans as prescribed, and emotional and physical abuse at the hands of a staff member.

image courtesy County of Simcoe

Sunset Manor is one of four long-term care homes managed by the County of Simcoe. Jane Sinclair, the county’s General Manager of Health and Emergency Services, says the ministry has misrepresented things. “I want to be clear; we disagree with the severity of the ministry’s findings. It is excessive, and there certainly are other circumstances at play,” she told Barrie 360.

Sinclair claims a recent inspection was carried out by a former employee of the county, and that facts were exaggerated as a result. “During this particular inspection, there was a significant conflict of interest, in that one of the inspectors during this review is a past employee of the county,” Sinclar used the ministry’s claim of emotional and physical abuse perpetrated by a staff member as an example. “What the report does not identify is that the incident was fully investigated by the home and self-reported to the ministry. And as a result of our investigation, the findings of abuse were not substantiated. So that was not a substantiated incident of abuse. However, that information, those details, are not in the inspection report.”

While Sinclar did state the former county employee was behind one recent inspection of the home, there have been nine inspections over the last two years, all claiming various non-compliance issues at the home. Sinclair couldn’t say if the same inspector was responsible for all nine inspections. “I’m not at liberty to discuss details. However, I will say that Sunset Manor’s rates of incidence compliance, historically, have not been unusually high compared to other homes across the province,” Sinclair stated. However, Sunset Manor is the only long-term care home in Ontario under an order to halt admissions so far this year, according to the Ministry.

Within the order from the Ministry was a stipulation that the home is brought under new management. “These orders will give the home the opportunity to address and comply with the outstanding compliance orders, stabilize leadership staffing, and ensure all staff have the time to refresh their training on required programs, policies and procedures, without the added pressure of meeting the needs of newly admitted residents,” a Ministry spokesperson told Barrie 360. “The ministry continues to monitor the home closely through regular follow-up inspections and ongoing contact with the operator to ensure the safety and well-being of the residents currently living in the home.” The process to find new management has already begun, according to Sinclair.

Despite refuting the severity of the Ministry’s claims, Sinclair says the county is already addressing concerns raised. “At this point in time, we already have developed a 70-point action plan and have achieved approximately 80% of those action items to address the issues that are identified in the inspection report,” she added, vowing to make the action plan public in the near future.

The Ministry’s order to the home and the findings of all nine inspections can be found online.

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