Pickering care home accused of blocking hospital trips

Several families say a longterm-care home east of Toronto that’s been ravaged by COVID-19 told them a local hospital would not accept their loved ones who were sick with the disease.

The hospital, Lakeridge Health, said it would never refuse patients who need care.

The home, Orchard Villa, said it routinely sent sick patients there during the pandemic.

But two people whose family members contracted COVID-19 at Orchard Villa allege they hit resistance when they tried to get their loved ones the care they needed.

Cathy Parkes said she knew something was wrong with her father on April 11. Paul Parkes had been living at Orchard Villa in Pickering since November, and the usually lucid 86-yearold seemed confused.

On April 14, Parkes asked to see her father.

“As soon as I saw him — he was on his back, he couldn’t open his mouth, couldn’t open his eyes, he seemed to be comatose,” Cathy Parkes said.

She called Lakeridge Health with what she had just seen. The hospital, she said, told her to call an ambulance.

She said she spoke to the home’s assistant director, who said her father was fine.

“She said, ‘We’ve had people try to send relatives to the hospital, but the hospital won’t accept them,’” Parkes alleges.

Parkes pushed back, saying they were ready to accept her father.

“She said, ‘Then they’re lying to you.’”

Confused and bewildered, Parkes relented. The next day, she took a call from Orchard Villa. Her father had died.

That same week, Simon Nisbet had been visiting his 89year-old mother, Doreen Nisbet, every day outside her window.

On April 21, on order from the local public health unit, Lakeridge Health stepped in to take over the lead on monitoring, investigating and responding to the outbreak at Orchard Villa.

The next day, Nisbet took a call from Orchard Villa, which said his mother had tested positive.

He later called the home and said he was taking his mom to the hospital.

“They say, ‘Oh really, I don’t think so,’” he said. “Then I said, ‘I’m standing right outside and she’s going to the hospital.’”

The home complied. She survived, but Nisbet said her kidneys were damaged from dehydration.

Jason Gay, the executive director of Orchard Villa, did not directly respond to allegations the home refused to send sick residents to the hospital.

“Over the course of the outbreak, 26 residents were taken in by Lakeridge Health hospital and a few residents remain in this hospital receiving care,” he said.