I'm Sorry, Smitherman Says

By Rob Ferguson, Toronto Star

February 28, 2008

Canada

Health Minister George Smitherman meets media after the Liberal cabinet is sworn in on Oct. 30, 2007. 

Health Minister George Smitherman is cleaning up the mess created by his plan to personally test an adult diaper used in nursing homes.

Smitherman apologized today, suggesting his words weren't chosen as carefully as he should have but insisting his heart was in the right place.

"At the heart of it, you say a million words and some of them you wish that you could take back," he said in an interview on CFRB.

"The people of the province of Ontario I hope know me well enough to know that I'm doing my very best to put myself at all times in the perspective of the patient."

Critics were angry with him for the remark made yesterday, saying it suggests he doesn't understand the real issue is not the absorbency of diapers, but a lack of staff to help nursing home residents get to the bathroom and change diapers promptly.

Smitherman's suggestion yesterday came as a union, whose members work in nursing homes, raised alarms over a shortage of staff to help residents get to the bathroom or change their diapers more often.

Just before a cabinet meeting Smitherman said: "I've got one of these incontinence products ... on my desk and I'm really giving this matter very serious contemplation. I want to have the right policy for Ontarians."

The issue was back in the news this month when the Ontario Human Rights Commission said it's too busy to investigate complaints that some elderly nursing home patients are not being changed until their diapers reach the 75 per cent full mark.

Smitherman said incontinence products for adults have evolved in recent years and that's why he's thinking about trying one as "a matter of conscience."

"I said, `How does a guy like me actually figure out what's right about all this? Is a product that offers greater absorption capability an appropriate product, or is that a front for some diminishment of care?" he told reporters.

"But at the heart of our obligation in long-term care is to improve the number of people that work there and enhance the quality of care for residents."

Opposition politicians, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and a nursing home association said Smitherman's plan to test drive a diaper shows he doesn't understand the issue is about staffing levels – not diaper technology.

"For him to suggest that's his answer is a disgrace," said Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory.

"It's some kind of a sideshow he seems determined to put on when, in fact, I think people in Ontario would say: `George Smitherman, do something about it. Let's see the revolution you promised in long-term care.'"

Shortly after the Liberals took power in 2003, Smitherman wiped away tears during an interview with the Toronto Star when he was shown pictures of a woman with a gangrenous bedsore that ate down to her tailbone, promising to fix problems with a "missionary zeal."

CUPE is pushing for a minimum of 3.5 hours of personal care daily per resident – an area the government has not yet set a standard for.

The Ontario Association of Non-Profit Homes and Services of Seniors said the industry average is now about 2.5 hours a day and is pushing for at least 3 hours, which would cost the government about $586 million, said chief executive officer Donna Rubin.

"I don't know what 3.5 hours represents, whether that's adequate or inadequate," said Premier Dalton McGuinty. "I will leave that to the minister ... the minister is doing what he thinks is appropriate in the circumstances."

Smitherman's plan and McGuinty's response "shows the government just doesn't take the issues of long-term care and seniors seriously," said NDP Leader Howard Hampton.

New Democrat MPP Peter Kormos called Smitherman a "damned embarrassment" and urged him to apologize to the 77,000 residents of nursing homes in Ontario and their families for what would amount to a cheap publicity stunt.

"Mr. Smitherman is going to put on an adult diaper and, perhaps, wet himself, and then promptly take it off. Our folks and grandfolks in those facilities don't get to take them off. They sit in them day in, day out, hours at a time."

While McGuinty said the government has increased funding to put another 1,200 nurses into the nursing home system, Rubin said that money is "just starting to flow" and has not made much of a difference on the front lines yet.

"The issue is more about how you would feel if you have to go to the washroom and someone says, `I can't get to you, so just pee," Rubin said.

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