Charges of poor vet care stun hospital

Sunnybrook and Women’s College Health Sciences Centre is surprised the Royal Canadian Legion issued a statement last month outlining a number of complaints by veterans residing there.

The Legion’s statement — which named the local hospital along with long-term and veteran’s care facilities in Ottawa and London, Ont. — alleged member veterans were receiving inadequate nursing care, and that cleanliness and routine maintenance of their residences were substandard. The Legion, the statement goes on, “is concerned that it is receiving an increasing number of complaints from families of veterans,” and called for a review of the way they are cared for in Ontario hospitals.

“I’m not sure what the Legion’s motivation is for that,” said Craig DuHamel, Sunnybrook’s director of public affairs. “I guess they received a complaint and they have to respond to it, but it’s certainly not a trend that we’ve noticed.”

DuHamel said that contrary to the Legion’s claim, the hospital has received fewer complaints from families of veterans over the past few years — 158 in 2001-02, according to his records, and only 37 so far this year, which he described as “minor.”

Singling out Sunnybrook from the other two long-term care facilities mentioned in the statement, the Legion’s Dave Gordon said he’s received “quite a few” complaints about the hospital over the years. “And they’ve been the same ongoing complaints from different families — around food and dinner service.”

When asked if the Town Crier could speak to one of the complainants, however, Gordon said they were likely reluctant to speak to media, fearing retaliation in the hospital.

Gordon, the assistant executive director of the Legion’s Ontario Command, further alleged that Sunnybrook is in “violation” of Veterans Affairs Canada’s (VAC) and the Ministry of Health’s transfer agreement, which provides funding for veterans in these facilities.

The VAC’s Residential Care Strategy is in place to ensure veterans receive “citizen plus” status with respect to accommodation and meal changes, and treatment benefit eligibility. Sunnybrook hospital is one of about 170 Priority Access Bed sites in Canada, which receives funding for qualified veterans. Staff there estimate veterans use 500 of the 560 beds in the long-term care facility.

“Sunnybrook is not giving the priority access to veterans,” Gordon said. “There are long waits for ophthalmologists, and there are four or five that I know of that have had a fall, broken a hip and had to wait three days for an operation.”

But DuHamel maintained that Sunnybrook is one of the only hospitals in Canada that ensures a veteran is treated before another community member with the same need.

“But I do know that there are wait times for everyone,” he said. “That’s something that all hospitals are struggling with right now.”