Barrette vows to help patient denied service in English

Calling the situation “totally unacceptable,” Health Minister Gaétan Barrette pledged on Wednesday to transfer to a bilingual nursing home an 80-year-old woman suffering from dementia who was denied care in English at an institution in the city’s east end.

Barrette, in particular, condemned controversial remarks by a nurse who had spoken over the phone to the woman’s husband. When George Zeliotis called the CHSLD Benjamin-Viger-Rousselot about his wife and asked whether there was someone who could speak English, he recalled that the nurse snapped at him, saying in French, “This is Quebec. We speak French in Quebec.”

“This is, to say the least, a sad story,” Barrette told radio host Aaron Rand on CJAD during a hard-hitting interview, reacting to a report Wednesday in the Montreal Gazette about Zeliotis and his wife, Alexandra Stefanatos.

“I don’t doubt those words have been spoken, and to me, this is totally unacceptable,” Barrette added.

“This is not the way to answer patients, to treat patients and their families. I cannot accept that myself. Now, that being said, efforts are (being) made as we speak to make sure that the patient will be transferred as soon as possible when there will be availability somewhere on the western part of the island.”

Reached at home Wednesday night, Zeliotis said Wednesday he was heartened by the minister’s promise to transfer his wife to a long-term care centre where some of the staff can speak to her in English.

“Oh, my God!” Zeliotis said. “Well, I think it was very wise of (Barrette) to say things like that because he’s a smart politician, you know. He’s trying to solve the problem fast.”