Families allege vets being neglected at Sunnybrook care facility

Disturbing allegations are being levelled against Sunnybrook hospital in the run-up to Remembrance Day with families of Canadian war veterans reportedly claiming their loved ones are being neglected at the nation’s largest care facility for vets.

Some families have complained about soiled sheets, high staff turnover, delayed bathing and meals, and unsanitary conditions.

Debra Stuart told CityNews about arriving to find her 91-year-old father in a state of neglect.

“I’ve arrived in my father’s room at eleven o’clock to find him lying in bed, with no hearing aids, not dressed, not washed, and his breakfast tray was sitting on his dresser completely untouched and unopened. He hadn’t been fed breakfast.”

Jackie Storrison told CityNews her father once went without toiled paper for three days, and that her mother once found him lying on the floor.

On its webpage, Sunnybrook says it cares for 500 Second World War and Korean War vets at its facility, which includes a wing for residents who can live more or less independently, and another wing for vets who need supportive care.

And the Dorothy Macham Home provides “leading-edge, innovative dementia care for veterans with challenging behaviours due to Alzheimer’s Disease and other dementias,” Sunnybrook’s website says.

Hospital officials say they aren’t aware of any complaints and maintain the vets are being treated well.

“We have 500 staff members for 500 veterans, so it’s not as though people are left alone for any great period of time. If someone may occasionally fall, that may happen, but people are never left alone,” said Craig Duhamel, V.P. Communications, Sunnybrook.

“When you have 500 veterans here, and several other hundred family members, not everyone is going to be 100 per cent happy of course.”