WOODSTOCK, ONT.—A long-awaited report on Elizabeth Wettlaufer’s murder spree in nursing homes has warned that a health-care serial killer can strike again.“We cannot assume that because Wettlaufer is behind bars, the threat to the safety and security of those receiving care in the long-term-care system has passed,” Justice Eileen Gillese said while revealing her report today.“To avoid similar tragedies in the future, it is critical that awareness is developed throughout the health-care system of the possibility that a health-care provider could intentionally harm those in their care,” she added, calling health-care serial killers a “phenomenon.”Gillese’s four-volume report calls for sweeping changes to fix the “systemic vulnerabilities” that allowed Wettlaufer, a registered nurse, to kill nine people in two southwestern Ontario nursing homes between 2007 and 2016. Her crimes only stopped when she decided, unprompted, to turn herself in and confess.The report’s 91 recommendations include calls for more intensive ministry oversight of nursing homes, more ministry funding for training and education of nursing home staff, increasing the number of registered nurses and staff in the homes, and government grants of up to $200,000 per home to make infrastructure and other changes to better secure medication. Wettlaufer murdered her victims with overdoses of insulin.The report does not say how much extra ministry funding all the recommendations would require. But with 626 nursing homes in Ontario, the price tag is significant.“The best way to prevent similar tragedies is to strengthen the long-term-care system and encourage excellence in residence care,” said Gillese, a justice on Ontario’s Court of Appeal.Gillese revealed her inquiry’s report in Woodstock, Ont., home of the Caressant Care long-term facility, where she killed seven of her victims. Families of the victims were ...
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