By Jason Maclennan, North Bay.
Dear Editor:
Long Term Care conditions are no surprise to anyone.
It has been an issue for at least 30 years when they started to privatize them under Mike Harris (You know the current CEO for a Long-Term Care home chain). It has been an election issue, so for any MPP, Premier, or even Prime Minister to say they did not know is complete and utter B#$()*T!
My grandmother was at an LTC facility in North Bay. She died 4 years ago of a septic UTI and dehydration, because of understaffing, because it's very clear if they had the time to work with my grandmother, they would have seen the problem and gotten her the treatment she needed which would have avoided an extremely painful death.
Yes, we had a case to sue them, but the maximum we could receive for her life was $150K which would have been eaten away by experts, etc. who need to testify against the home and the reality is, as one lawyer told us, you would end up owing money at the end of the day because what was required.
The system also puts no value on the life of someone in Long Term Care and the owners of Long-Term Care Homes know this and use it to make their profits which is why many people do not sue.
Let us talk locally. MPP and Minster Fedeli has been in office since 2011.
Over the course of 5 years, my family wrote and called Vic Fedeli about the conditions in the Long-Term Care home which was in his riding. Did he visit my grandmother? Not once. Did he bring it up in Queen’s Park? Nope. Did he show compassion to my family for the frustration and anger that was building over the years? Nope. What did Vic Fedeli do regarding my family and grandmother? He banned us from seeing or communicating with him.
Henri Giroux during the last provincial election brought this issue up as an election issue. Did Vic Fedeli do anything when he got back to Queen’s Park? Nope.
Did he do the same with other families who complained about Long Term Care Homes? Yup, ignored them too.
Now, not only did Vic Fedeli vote in favour of cuts to Long Term Care last year, he continued to ignore families and seniors in Long Term Care.
There are some great folks that work in Long Term care trying to do the best they can, but how do you function without proper support and staffing. Did Vic Fedeli change any of that? Nope. Did Vic Fedeli speak out in support of seniors? Nope. Did he raise the alarm at Queen’s Park? Nope.
During the election, Vic Fedeli said he was for the people. He was for the little guy. For the people? I think not.
Sincerely
Jason Maclennan
North Bay.
