Ontario failed to meet its own legislated target this past year for the average number of hands-on hours of care that long-term care residents receive, a newly updated document shows.
The province says it has since reached its goal for the 2023-24 fiscal year, but that happened outside of the timeframe the Progressive Conservative government set out in a 2021 law.
The government says it continues to work toward its next target of ensuring residents get four hours per day of direct care from nurses and personal support workers by the end of the current fiscal year next March.
The first- and second-year interim targets were met, but the target of three hours and 42 minutes by March 31 of this year was missed.
This fall, officials added that information to the bottom of a 2020 staffing plan posted on the Ontario government’s website without saying anything publicly — a …