Scammer
Banned
A Manitoba doctor is raising questions about why more isn't being done to help 28 seniors forced out of their care home and into a high school in a remote First Nations community.
The seniors were moved from their care facility in Oxford House early Wednesday after part of the ceiling collapsed. There were fears the entire roof could cave in.
Residents of the home are now living in makeshift quarters at a nearby high school, which has drawn the ire of a community doctor who says they need constant care in a proper facility.
The high school has no bathing tubs or areas to cook meals, let alone care for vulnerable people at risk of infection, bed sores and pneumonia, said Dr. Walter Hoeppner.
"This is 2011 – we can't do better than that?" he asked, referring to the situation as "very frustrating."
"These are elders who built the community," Hoeppner said.
The contractor who built the area of the home where the ceiling collapsed said he may be able to fix the damage in a month's time.
Hoeppner said he made arrangements to move 17 people to care homes in other communities, but Health Canada refused to airlift them out of Oxford House — a fly in community — because they weren't sick enough.
"I thought they were joking when they said they weren't helping," Hoeppner said.
Health Canada said it is working on a plan with the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs and Manitoba's Burntwood Health Authority to have the seniors moved.
Neither agency could say when that might happen.
Oxford House is located about 500 kilometres north of Winnipeg.