It is my pleasure to present to you the 2019 Annual Report of the Geriatric and Long-Term Care Review Committee (GCTCRC).  

The GLTCRC was established in 1989 and consists of members who are respected practitioners in the fields of geriatrics, gerontology, family medicine, psychiatry, nursing, pharmacology, emergency medicine and services to seniors.

The Office of the Chief Coroner (OCC), through the GCTCRC, has made it a policy to review all homicides involving residents of long-term care or retirement homes. The GLTCRC also reviews cases where systemic issues may be present or where significant concerns have been identified by the family, investigating coroner or Regional Supervising Coroner. 

Reviews conducted by the GLTCRC include a comprehensive and thorough review of the circumstances surrounding the death and if appropriate, the development of recommendations aimed towards the prevention of future similar deaths.  In 2019, the GLTCRC reviewed 27 cases, involving 28 deaths and generated 64 recommendations.

Reviews and recommendations prepared by the GLTCRC are widely distributed to service providers, long-term care providers and other relevant agencies and organizations throughout the province. Our role is to provide information to relevant organizations that will subsequently lead to improvements in processes, policies and initiatives, with the goal of preventing future deaths in similar circumstances.

The recommendations of the Long-Term Care (LTC) Public Inquiry were released in June 2019. Since then, government, the LTC industry and organizations representing health care providers have been busy developing their responses. I am pleased to be involved with the tasks assigned to the Office of the Chief Coroner, aimed at improving death investigation in LTC and increasing the awareness of vulnerabilities of the elderly, including intentional harm by those providing care. The GLTCRC has applied the lessons learned from the inquiry to their reviews.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ms. Kathy Kerr (Executive Lead) for her assistance with the ongoing administration and management of GLTCRC activities and data.

It is an honour to participate in the work of the GLTCRC and I am grateful for the commitment of its members to the people of Ontario.

Readers who wish to obtain the redacted narrative reports can do so by contacting the OCC at: occ.inquiries@ontario.ca.

Roger Skinner, MD, CCFP (EM)
Regional Supervising Coroner, Modernization and
Chair, Geriatric and Long -Term Care Review Committee