A Winnipeg woman wants to meet with Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister and Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen after she says home-care workers failed to show up for her mom multiple times in the last week.
Linda Blair said home-care workers didn't come to help her 75-year-old mom, Dru Landers, eight times since Dec. 24.
The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority said missed appointments may be weather-related, but Blair doesn't buy their reason and said the missed appointments aren't only happening during heavy snowfalls.
Landers lives with chronic pain and anxiety, has limited mobility and has been receiving home care for the past 2 1/2 years.
Landers relies on home-care workers to visit her apartment building four times a day to bring her meals, help her take medication and assist with personal hygiene.
When home-care workers are unavailable, Blair has to leave work at a daycare to help her mom with those tasks.
"It's ridiculous what's going on," Blair said. "Over the Christmas break it's escalated, it's bad."
Blair said no one called her to warn about the delays, or to consistently notify her when a worker is unavailable to help her mom.
"Over the break she wasn't getting her meals," Blair added. "This is bad, this is a crisis."
Real Cloutier, vice-president and chief operating officer of the health authority, said staff is following up on Blair's concerns and apologized for the missed appointments.
Cloutier said it's not clear in Landers' case if the missed appointments were directly related to the weather, a sick worker or staffing shortages.
Cloutier said the heavy snowfall on Dec. 26 and Dec. 27 prevented staff from getting to all home-care clients. Priority was given to clients who required urgent care.
Home care is not a guaranteed service and families should have a backup plan to help a loved one if home care is unavailable, Cloutier said.
The health authority said staff make 400,000 home care visits each month.
There are currently 14,000 home care clients in Winnipeg.
(CTV Winnipeg)
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