Imagine caring for the sick and having no sick leave yourself.

Imagine being paid by the visit and caring for a patient who needs much more time than the allotted minutes set by the employer.

Imagine working in an injury-prone sector and having little in the way of health and safety protections for yourself.

Since April 10, the nurses and administrative staff at CarePartners in Norfolk County and the Niagara Region have been on strike for a collective agreement that other employers would consider to be industry standard.

A company that profits from the delivery of publicly-funded home care, CarePartners’ owner Linda Knight has kept a low profile during this dispute. In fact, we haven’t seen her at all. She has sufficient funds to contract out her bargaining to a third party and feels no urgency towards patients who now have to be taken to clinics by taxi instead of being cared for in their homes. She has also made sure that there is ample paid security outside the clinics despite peaceful picketing by the caregivers.

Meanwhile patients are being backed up in the region’s hospitals with nowhere to go.

It’s time CarePartners faces up to its responsibility.

It’s time for the Health Minister to take responsibility for the increasing dysfunction in the region’s home care system.

Tell us your home care story

Call 1-844-661-5433 and share your stories on home nursing care in Niagara Region and Norfolk County. All calls with be treated with strict confidentiality.