A long-term elderly care facility on Ile Bizard has been so ravaged by healthcare cuts, unionized nurses say patients are being left in what they call miserable conditions, from moldy rooms without air conditioning in the summer to those with restricted mobility being left in soiled diapers for hours.
"There are higher instances of fungal infections for people left in diapers for long periods of time, the showers not safe the ceiling is falling down,," Sandra Dahl, union spokeswoman and a nurse at the Denis-Benjamin-Viger Centre, said at a press conference on Sunday. "It's a 'milieu de vie', people have a right to a shower."
Including nurses and orderlies, there are 43 employees at the centre that care for about 125 patients, but six positions have been recently cut, according to the union, and often there is at least one floor without an orderly at night.
Facilities are also falling into dilapidation, according to Dahl, with many patients' rooms seeing growing problems with mould. Many have windows that do not open, she added, and have no air conditioning during the stifling summer months.
According to the union, there isn't even enough staff to adequately assist patients that need help eating meals.
The Director of the Support for Elderly Autonomy Program for the regional Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux de l’ouest-de-l’île-de-Montréal, Patrick Murphy-Lavallée, denies the claims. He says staff are in the process of being re-organized to meet evolving patients’ needs.
All the same, the nurse's union plans to protest the situation outside the centre starting at 11:30 a.m. Monday morning.