after ottawa man died alone, concerns about ontario home care increase
5 minute read
a copy of a family photo of john lacombe, 62, who in january was found dead in the west-end ottawa apartment in where he lived alone.
julie oliver
/
postmedia
the death of an ottawa man who waited for home care that never came is raising concerns that others might also be falling through cracks in ontario’s home care system.
ontario liberal health critic dr. adil shamji said there had been growing worries that patient health was being compromised amid ongoing issues at ontario health athome, the provincial agency co-ordinating home care and palliative care services.
“the fear has always been that someone would die from ontario health athome chaos and incompetence, and now we know that someone has,” shamji said.
in january, john lacombe, 62, was found dead in the west-end ottawa apartment in where he lived alone. his body was discovered after a co-ordinator with ontario health athome notified his sister, norine gagnon, that they were closing his file because he wasn’t answering the phone.
that was several weeks after the agency met with lacombe and his sister to arrange for home care after he was discharged from hospital. that care never came and, as far as his gagnon knew, there was no attempt by the agency to check on his wellbeing during that time despite his frail health and her insistence that he couldn’t always make it to the phone after having a stroke.
norine gagnon holds a family photo of her brother, john lacombe.
julie oliver
/
ottawa citizen/postmedia network
after learning they were closing his file, gagnon, a retired nurse, called police to do a wellness check. lacombe was found dead in his apartment and his sister was told he had probably been dead for a week.
ontario health athome has told gagnon it is reviewing the circumstances of the case and “taking a deep dive to find out what went wrong.” that call came months after his death and after she contacted a reporter about the case.
ndp mpp chandra pasma, whose ottawa west-nepean constituency office was contacted by gagnon, called lacombe’s death “absolutely horrifying.
“i can’t imagine for the family how traumatic this is, to lose a loved one in this way, to know they died alone, that their body wasn’t found for so long, and that it was because of a breakdown of the system.”
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pasma said she feared there would be more victims like lacombe, given ongoing issues and stresses in the home care system.
“i think there is a serious risk this is going to happen to more people — that they fall through the cracks. i think the fact that there are more patients being put into a system that is already stressed is going to lead to more scenarios where there are negative outcomes and potentially tragedies,” she said.
shamji said the case followed a worrisome pattern at ontario health at home, which had been “mired in so many problems” in recent months.
“it’s heartbreaking tragic and unnecessary. it has been obvious that ontario health athome has been disorganized, overwhelmed and breaking promises since it first started,” shamji said. “we have always known that patient care has been getting compromised. “
ontario health athome was established in 2024 as a centralized agency in charge of co-ordinating home care. it was created by amalgamating former home and community care support services around the province with the aim of modernizing and streamlining care services in ontario at a time when demand for and investment in home care was rising.
it has been mired by challenges and controversies almost from the beginning, among them a medical equipment supply shortage. that resulted in some dying cancer patients not receiving necessary supplies, including pain relief.
in ottawa, a dying woman was left struggling to breathe after a piece of equipment and medications used to ease breathing in palliative patients failed to arrive at her home until after her death.
although the supply shortage was triggered by one vendor, ontario’s patient ombudsman said a lack of oversight and planning at ontario health athome contributed to the situation.
shamji said there had also been regular reports of home care staff being unable to make appointments, leaving patients waiting for desperately needed care.
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pasma said she had heard from one ottawa family that home care workers consistently didn’t show up until 10 p.m., when the patient was already in bed. pasma said that reflected recruitment difficulties, the fact that staff were facing more work than they could reasonably do and a failure to take a realistic look at staffing issues.
and last year, the personal and health information of up to 200,000 people was impacted by a cyber attack on one of the home care agency’s vendors. ontario health athome didn’t immediately notify patients about the breach. shamji first revealed the attack months after the incident.
ontario liberal health critic adil shamji said there did not seem to have been increases in home care worker staffing despite the province’s announced investment in home care.
john lappa
/
postmedia
lacombe’s death comes at a time when there is a growing spotlight on home care to help ease the burden on overwhelmed hospitals, to allow more people to die in their own homes and to help care for an aging population.
last year the ontario government announced it would spend $1.1 billion over three years to extend home care services to thousands of patients. that plan included the growth of the hospital to home program designed to safely transition patients from hospital care back to their homes, reducing hospital stays and emergency department visits, according to the ministry of health.
shamji said there did not seem to have been increases in home care worker staffing despite the announced investment in home care.
“i am certainly not hearing about increased quality of care being delivered, and i find too many people concerned that they are not getting service that is dignified in a timely manner,” he said.
julie kavanagh, a spokesperson for ottawa police service, said there was no data or obvious signs that cases where home care patients had fallen through the cracks and come to harm were increasing in the city.
both police and paramedics sometimes respond to calls for wellness checks.
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“if an elderly person is found at home in an unsafe environment by the police or paramedics, if required, immediate medical care will be provided,” she said. she added that, if an elderly person living at home did not answer the door, it was expected that the organization that provides the care would contact family members or the authorities.
still shamji fears there have been and will be other cases.
“i suspect this is not the only case that has occurred like this. it is just the only case that has come to public light,” he said.
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