Veteran seeking class action for drop in care at Ste-Anne’s
Claims level of service has declined since hospital transferred to province in 2016
When Wolf William Solkin moved into Ste-Anne’s Hospital in 2013 after complications following hip surgery, he was blown away by the facilities and care offered.
For the next two years, Solkin, a 95-year-old Second World War veteran, says he considered himself to be living in one of the “most outstanding ” long-term care facilities in the country.
Then came April 1, 2016, the day the hospital was transferred from federal to provincial jurisdiction and was no longer under the responsibility of Veterans Affairs Canada.
The negative impact, Solkin says, was immediate.
“The quality has not gone down but the quantity, availability and frequency of those services have decreased dramatically and drastically,” Solkin said. “It’s not only a deterioration of service, it’s a deterioration to the point of danger.”
Solkin is now behind a request for authorization of a class-action lawsuit against the federal and provincial governments, as well as the West Island health authority.
The demand is seeking compensation for 166 veterans, all from the Second World War or Korean War, who reside at Ste-Anne’s Hospital, as well as for the families of those who lived there at the time of the transfer but have since died.
According to the lawyer representing the veterans, Laurent Kanemy, the two governments and the health authority have failed to respect aspects of the contract signed for the transfer, which included obligations to maintain the same level of care and services that were provided before.
Kanemy said the federal government has paid the provincial government roughly $30 million since the transfer to ensure the services were maintained, but it hasn’t been the case. The federal government has a responsibility to make sure the money is being used for services, he added.
“But they failed on that obligation,” he said.
The class action application says 40 per cent of the staff resigned from the hospital almost immediately after the transfer. Solkin said he could list “dozens and dozens” of ways in which services have been reduced since then.
For one, he said, the hospital used to have one head nurse and assistant nurse per floor, but now has one per three floors.
Solkin, who has a permanent catheter, used to have a urologist visit to change it once per month. Since the transfer, he said, it’s been once every three months. An onpremises blood-testing facility has also been outsourced, he added, as have cardiologist services.
The last two years have also brought constant changes to the hospital’s staff, Solkin said. He can live with it, but for other patients suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, the constant turnover is unsettling, depriving them of the sense of security provided by stability and continuity.
“You’re pushing the envelope too far with these kinds of cost-cutting measures,” Solkin said. “You may be cutting costs, but it’s at the cost of cutting lives.”
The West Island health authority (the Montréal West Island Integrated University Health and Social Services Centre) said it could not comment since a “judicial process is currently underway.”
“We reiterate,” a spokesperson added, “that providing our patients and resident veterans with the care and services to which they are entitled is always at the forefront of our priorities.”
Kanemy says he’s pushing to have the class-action authorized quickly to ensure as many veterans as possible “get their day in court.”
Solkin agrees time is of the essence. At the time of the transfer, there were approximately 300 veterans living at the hospital. Now there are 166.
Every morning — or every morning he manages to get out of bed, he said — Solkin makes his way downstairs to what he called the veteran’s wall, where they post photos of each veteran who dies. Three men died in the last week alone, he said. He stops and salutes the photos each time.
“We’re not here because we’re spry, we’re here because we’re frail and failing,” he said. “We’re here to die, not live. But we should die in our own good time, with proper care and attention. With the dignity we are due.”
That being said, he takes comfort in knowing the class-action would also seek compensation for the estates of veterans who have died since the transfer.
“We leave nobody behind.”