Hospital to charge Dieppe veteran $700 a day

[old medic]

Hospital to charge Dieppe veteran $700 a day
By MICHELE MANDEL
The Toronto Sun
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/06/18/9835731-sun.html

OAKVILLE -- Paul Parkin has served this country well.

At 23, he enlisted to fight in the Second World War, refusing to take no for an answer when he was first turned down because of poor vision. He returned with glasses and they signed him up.

His first wife died while he was overseas and still he did his duty, accepting the army's decision to deny him leave. On Aug. 19, 1942, he bravely set out on the disastrous Dieppe raid, where he was shot in the shoulder and hip, and became one of almost 2,000 Canadians captured by the Germans.

Parkin would spend the next three years of his life as a prisoner of war in Germany, forced to sleep on dirty, bug-infested stacks of hay and perform back-breaking manual labour on enemy farms with little food until the war finally ended and he could come back home to his beloved Oakville.

Parkin has certainly done his part for Canada. But in his hour of need, this 92-year-old great-grandfather is being treated with scandalous insensitivity.

Because he won't move out of Oakville-Trafalgar Memorial Hospital into a nursing home in Etobicoke far from his family, he is now being threatened with a daily bill of $700.

"Is this how we treat our veterans at the end of the day?" asks his angry son, Doug, 52.

For the last two years, Parkin had been living with his youngest son and daughter-in-law until kidney failure required him to be hospitalized at Oakville-Trafalgar on Jan. 3. They almost lost him, but with the help of a feeding tube, he's regained enough of his health that he was ready to be discharged a few months ago.

An assessment by the Community Care Access Centre determined that Parkin couldn't go back home to his son because he's now confined to a wheelchair, requires constant care and the house isn't wheelchair accessible. So CCAC began looking for a spot in a long-term care facility and Parkin's family was assured that as a veteran, he would receive priority.

He filled out their form giving his top three choices of nursing homes, with all being in Oakville.

In the meantime, as a patient ready for discharge, Parkin was told he would have to start paying $1,578 a month to stay in the hospital, the same amount he would be paying if he were living in long-term care, with $722 of that picked up by Veterans Affairs. "They don't want people to lodge in their hospital. So be it. I understand," says Parkin's son.

The widower's only request was that they find him a nursing home in Oakville, so his children and grandchildren could continue their frequent visits. "I work shifts and I'm here at least five-six times a week," his son explains, as he sits in his dad's hospital room. "My wife and brothers are here all the time, too."

But at about 1:30 p.m. on Friday, May 1, Parkin was told the CCAC had found him a room at a nursing home 30 km and three highways away in Etobicoke.

'VISITS FROM FAMILY'

He had to let them know by the end of the day. His son and daughter-in-law tried to get over to check it out, but by the time the staff there returned their call later that Friday, a visit couldn't be arranged.

Even more importantly, Parkin didn't want to be moved so far away. So his family turned down the Etobicoke placement.

And for that sin, the senior could now be punished to the tune of $700 a day. "You continue to remain in an inappropriate bed to meet your level of care," the hospital said in a terse letter to Parkin, demanding a meeting for today.

"It puts me in a terrible position," says the worried white-haired veteran, as he stares out at the rain from his wheelchair. "It's got me so confused, I don't know what to do."

His son, the youngest of five children, says he's discovered his father's predicament is not unique among veterans.

"I think it's terrible. These are people who fought for freedom. We owe them a great deal of gratitude," he insists. "He's lived in Oakville since 1920. He wants to stay in this town and he has every right to stay here and have visits from his family."

A spokesman for Oakville-Trafalgar said privacy laws prevent them from commenting specifically on Parkin's case.

But according to Halton Healthcare Services policy, Parkin was warned "that the hospital will charge you a full daily rate of $700 as per the Public Hospitals Act if you no longer require the services of the acute care hospital yet remain in an acute care bed and ... do not accept the first appropriate long-term care bed offered."

His health may be frail, but his mind is sharp -- and Parkin has spent too much of his energy these last few days fretting about what will happen to his savings. "That's way too much," he says of the threatened $700 a day charge. "That would drain me."

And all because he doesn't want to be forced to move away from his family and hometown?

"I've been in Oakville close to 90 years so you can see the reason why I don't want to leave," he explains politely. "Not knowing where I'm going, it preys on my mind. I worry about it."

So the brave old soldier remains locked in a cage. No longer a prisoner of war, but now a prisoner of heartless bureaucracy.

Hospital threat against WW2 vet 'illegal'
By MICHELE MANDEL
Toronto Sun
copy at  http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/06/19/9850886-sun.html

TORONTO -- Yesterday's front-page tale about a former PoW being threatened with a $700-a-day hospital charge has sparked outrage from readers and is being investigated by the minister of veterans affairs in Ottawa.

Nova Scotia MP Peter Stoffer, the NDP's veterans affairs critic, raised the plight of 92-year-old Paul Parkin with Minister Greg Thompson yesterday and was assured it would be looked into.

Parkin spent three years as a prisoner of war after he was shot twice and captured by the Germans in 1942 during the bloody battle at Dieppe. "He served his country in horrific conditions and he is now in the sunset of his life," Stoffer said. "We should be handling any concerns that he has."

Instead, the great-grandfather has basically been told he's overstayed his welcome at Oakville-Trafalgar Memorial hospital, where he has been since January suffering from kidney failure and a heart condition. He's more than willing to be discharged, but the wheelchair-bound Second World War veteran wants to be moved to a long-term care facility in Oakville, the town he has called home since 1920, and close to his family who visit him almost every day.

Instead, the Community Care Access Centre told him last month that they had found him a place in an Etobicoke nursing home, and when Parkin dared to turn it down because he didn't want to go so far away and his family couldn't get there in time to check it out, the hospital threatened to start charging him $700 a day for taking up a bed they need.

As a patient ready for discharge, he is already paying $1,578 a month to stay on in the hospital, with $722 of that picked up by veterans affairs. The threat of $700 a day had the poor man terrified he would have no more savings. "That's way too much. It would drain me," Parkin said.


After his story appeared in the Sun yesterday, hospital officials made no further mention of the $700 at their scheduled meeting to discuss his options. But they still insisted their hands are tied and with waiting lists so long, Parkin has no choice but to move to a nursing home outside the Oakville area.

"My dad doesn't want to be in the hospital tying up a bed needed for the sick. He wants out and I want him where he will be comfortable," says his 52-year-old son, Doug, who has been fighting the bureaucracy for months.

This kind of arm-twisting of veterans is not new, according to Dave Gordon, executive director of the Royal Canadian Legion Ontario Command. "It's kind of cold," said Gordon, who has contacted veterans affairs to see if Parkin can be helped. "It's not the first time it's happened and it probably won't be the last."

In fact, a lawyer at the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly says they receive at least one call daily about a hospital threatening to charge from $500 to $1,500 a day if the senior doesn't take the first available nursing home bed found for them by the CCAC. In one case, a senior was hit with a $100,000 hospital bill.

"It's scare tactics to get them out," says lawyer Jane Meadus, institutional advocate at ACE, who insists the bullying is common -- and illegal.

Hospitals, she argues, cannot charge more than $1,578 a month so their daily rate is just a threat used to intimidate the vulnerable elderly to take whatever nursing home is offered.

And the CCAC, she says, is only supposed to contact the three facilities a patient has chosen.

"There is no way that they could legally have 'found' him a home in Etobicoke as he could not have applied there and they could not have considered his application," says the legal advocate. "More likely, there was an available bed somewhere, and they made him believe that he had to take it or face the consequences."

The severe shortage of long-term care beds is a serious problem in Ontario, but seniors shouldn't be the ones harassed and bullied.

"They call them bed blockers but it's not their fault," Meadus argues. "They didn't do anything but get old and sick."

To Parkin's delight, many have rallied to his cause.

James Caiazzo read of the veteran's treatment and was horrified. "This is so despicable. A 92-year-old man in a wheelchair who fought for Canada and they're threatening to charge him $700 a day? I'm totally appalled," said Caiazzo, 58.

"It really broke my heart," added reader Pamela Arnott, 71. "If we can't look after our vets, the world has come to an end."

While many elderly patients are too frightened to stand up to the system's threats, Parkin is a tough old soldier who won't surrender -- and neither will his family.

"If he wants to stay in Oakville, I'll stick to my guns," vows his son Doug. "I don't think it's right for a veteran like my father, who spent three years as a PoW sleeping on hay, not to have a bed in the community he wants."

"Oakville-Trafalgar Memorial hospital"?

I suggest they no longer qualify to hold the name "memorial" and should be officially stripped of that
dedication.

 

[FastEddy]

Just another  example of Canadian Justice and Laws.
What can you expect when we have countless Groups, Associations and Lawyers fighting tooth and nail for the rights of  Terrorists, Murderers, Rapist and Child Molestors for their rights and conditions of confinement.
Thank God this matter is coming to the attention of the Public and hopefully something can be done to assist and oblige Mr. Parkin and his Family.
The Veterans of Canada have always taken a back seat, look at how long it took to recognize the Brave Lads of the Merchant Marine who also Served and Died during WWII.

When I read of situations like this it disgusts me and make me wonder, if we are the Worlds biggest Hypocrites.

 

[dustinm]

What can you expect when we have countless Groups, Associations and Lawyers fighting tooth and nail for the rights of  Terrorists, Murderers, Rapist and Child Molestors for their rights and conditions of confinement.

In this case it looks like the Groups, Associations, and Lawyers have all rallied in this Veteran's defence. The problem here is the hospital, who instead of charging him $700 a month as they're obliged, they claim they'll charge him $700/day.

 

[Edward Campbell]

This has nothing at all to do with his status as a veteran. It is symptomatic of the malaise that exists within the public health system and, indeed, within the public sector at large.

One of the primary reasons we have long wait times in hospital emergency rooms is that acute care beds in hospitals are full of people who need long term care. There are insufficient long terms care beds, especially where they are wanted, and many of those are filled with people who could and should be cared for in their own homes. The first problem we have is that home care is:

• Poorly paid and, therefore, dependent, mainly, on the new immigrant population, the supply of  which is frequently constrained for political reasons; and

• Perceived to be “free maid service” and, therefore, always on the political chopping block.

But “free” long day (12-18 hours/day) of home care (cooking, cleaning, bathing, walking/exercising and companionship) is – as reported in study after study – cheaper and “better" for the client/patient than is “confinement” in a long term care facility. Even 24/7 nurse supervised home care is reported to be almost always “better” and often cheaper than some long term care options.

There are too few nursing homes in desirable locations because profit margins are narrow and owners go where costs – land, especially – can be kept lower.

Many nursing homes have not kept pace with the minimal qualitative expectations of their clients – again because the profit margins are low.

Hospitals are being told to get chronic care patients out of critical care beds. But the hospitals’ chronic care beds are full and the patients in them are on waiting lists for desirable beds in nursing homes.

The hospital is just doing, rather insensitively, what the Minister of Health in Ontario is telling every hospital to do. So let’s put the blame where it belongs: on the taxpayers who are sick and tired of paying more and more and more and more for less and less health care, of all types. We all want Mr. Parkin out of his acute care bed so that a sick person, who needs acute care, can be treated. “We” are unwilling to pay the freight for broadly acceptable chronic and long term care in our communities and in our homes. As Pogo said, ”We have met the enemy and he is us.”

 

[mariomike]

Mr Campbell, may I say, thank you for your always insightful posts.
And thank you for remembering one of my favorite comic strips!
"We are confronted with insurmountable opportunities." Pogo.

 

[FastEddy]

In this case it looks like the Groups, Associations, and Lawyers have all rallied in this Veteran's defence. The problem here is the hospital, who instead of charging him $700 a month as they're obliged, they claim they'll charge him $700/day.

I don't think any of the Groups I was referring to have even read this article. Grow up and forget about being clever.

 

[dustinm]

I don't think any of the Groups I was referring to have even read this article. Grow up and forget about being clever.

Which groups were you referring to? Protecting human rights is important. That's what lawyers do, even if the people they're representing are less than wholesome. There may be groups in Canada which support terrorists but they're essentially illegal.

This veteran had an issue, he received some media attention, the people involved have highlighted the illegality of the Hospital's conduct, and they're seeking to remedy it. I don't see what terrorists, murderers, or child molesters have to do with that.

 

[The Bread Guy]

As much as it sucks, E.R.C. hit the nail precisely on the head - in the past, Ontario has talked the talk about funding home care and long term care/nursing home care in an effort to reduce the load on the more expensive acute care/hospital care system.  However, hospitals are facing increasing pressures for a number of reasons:
1) I understand their funding isn't growing anywhere near as much as their traffic is growing (not enough doctors=more folks visiting emergency=higher costs to hospitals).
2)  Ontario isn't pumping enough $ into home care (it's sexy holding a news conference at a bright shiny new hospital, but not so much in the living room of someone who's had a hospital bed moved in?), so the services become rationed (you get a minimalist x hours of care a week if you go home, and if you want more, you can pay the private sector) and if someone needs more than just basic follow-up, back to emerg with them (see above).
3)  In some parts of Ontario, there's not enough nursing home beds (because of not enough provincial funding), so because there's no long-term care bed, you wait in an expensive acute-care bed, jacking up the cost pressures on the hospitals even more.

Re:  this:

This veteran had an issue, he received some media attention, the people involved have highlighted the illegality of the Hospital's conduct, and they're seeking to remedy it.

4)  Unless the system has changed since my now-dead mom was in the system a while ago, if you refuse an available long-term care bed with the appropriate level of care in your area, Ontario's rules say you pay the per-diem rate to continue to stay in hospital and access expensive acute care.

In this case, the "we" E.R.C. refers to the provincial taxpayer/voter "we" - Ontario, you know what needs to be done. 

 

[dustinm]

Re:  this:4)  Unless the system has changed since my now-dead mom was in the system a while ago, if you refuse an available long-term care bed with the appropriate level of care in your area, Ontario's rules say you pay the per-diem rate to continue to stay in hospital and access expensive acute care.

That is correct, you have to pay if you refuse. However according to the article the maximum they can charge is $1,578 a month,

In fact, a lawyer at the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly says they receive at least one call daily about a hospital threatening to charge from $500 to $1,500 a day if the senior doesn't take the first available nursing home bed found for them by the CCAC. In one case, a senior was hit with a $100,000 hospital bill.

"It's scare tactics to get them out," says lawyer Jane Meadus, institutional advocate at ACE, who insists the bullying is common -- and illegal.

Hospitals, she argues, cannot charge more than $1,578 a month

 

[Edward Campbell]

“Hospitals, she argues, cannot charge more than $1,578 a month."

And that, while probably quite true and correct, is utter nonsense. Hospital acute care beds don’t “cost" $1,578.00/month and they aren’t “worth” $1,578.00/month. If you want to know what they “cost’ and what they are “worth” ask an uninsured peson, like a visitor to Canada, without health insurance, who requires hospital care.

As far as I know (and I think my numbers are fairly good and current) about the cheapest acute care bed in Canada costs $3,000.00±/day – without any fancy care, monitoring or medication. An ICU bed with quite extensive monitoring and care can, I believe, bring the bill to $5,000.00+/day. Add some fancy tests and some actual treatment and it is possible to spend $10,000.00/day. That’s what it “costs” the hospital to provide the “care” and that is, therefore, what the bed is “worth.” The $1,578.00/month is simply the equivalent of the “value” of a long term care bed in a nursing home. It is a number provided by an especially wasteful group of oxygen thieves called health care economists and “imposed” by stupid, lazy, venal politicians who are terrified of making their constituents pay the “real” freight.

So long as we persist in lying to ourselves about the costs of keeping Mr. Parkin in his preferred hospital bed we will, equally, persist in wasting  huge amounts of taxpayers’ dollars which could be and should be much, much better spent – including on “productive" health care outcomes. Mr. Parkin, and hundreds if not thousands of other Ontarians, should be charged $3,000.00±/day, not just $700.00!

 

[GAP]

What everybody is passing over, in the process of pointing out the stupid funding of "homes" and "homecare", is that not every town/city/community justifies having a nursing home next door.

ER is right...it's all based on profit margins.

When was the last time you drove 30 miles? Probably to go across town and back. So sonny boy can't/won't get off his ass and visit if it's more than a 10 minute trip?

 

[The Bread Guy]

That is correct, you have to pay if you refuse. However according to the article the maximum they can charge is $1,578 a month,

Then I must be confused, or the system has changed - I'd be happy to hear from anyone who knows more about Ontario health care, then, because I distinctly remember being told that if you refuse an available long-term care bed, you pay the acute-care per diem, not the long-term care rate, because there already IS a long-term care space available for you to use.  You also end up on the bottom of the waiting list as well, IIRC.  My understanding was that it cost ~$1,500/month to stay in acute care if there was NO long-term care accommodations available.

No free long-term bed+hospital stay=$~1,600/month as a long term care patient
Long-term care bed available+refusal = $700/day as an acute care patient

So long as we persist in lying to ourselves about the costs of keeping Mr. Parkin in his preferred hospital bed we will, equally, persist in wasting  huge amounts of taxpayers’ dollars which could be and should be much, much better spent – including on “productive" health care outcomes./quote]
Not to mention treatment/support options that patients want more than being kept in a big building...

 

[Armymedic]

Dispite the attention grabbing headlines, I will echo the earlier point of this not being an issue of mistreatment of a veteran, but an issue of chronic, widespread malaise throught our society toward the care of the elderly. The healine gets your attention, but the real issue is the cost of, and the number of people to care for the elderly.

As medicine advances to help us survive longer, our society lacks in supporting those whom care for our elderly.

Ask yourself why long term, out of hospital nurses get paid much less than in hospital nurses. Ask your self why a doctor would be an idiot go into geriatric medicine, or to work for a long term care home....

Actually don't ask, I will tell you: $$$$$, they get paid crap.

That is the issue.

 

[1feral1]

In Australia Gold Card Veterans get 1st class national treatment for doctors and hospital stays for the rest of their lives at NO cost to them or their families.

Gold Card Vets includes all WW2, Korea, many Viet Nan, and other Vets under 70 yrs of age who have health problems caused from their active service.

OWDU

 

[armyvern]

In Australia Gold Card Veterans get 1st class national treatment for doctors and hospital stays for the rest of their lives at NO cost to them or their families.

Gold Card Vets includes all WW2, Korea, many Viet Nan, and other Vets under 70 yrs of age who have health problems caused from their active service.

OWDU

Do they get 'no cost' living in assisted living facilities too? Am curious.

The gentlemen in this article also gets free hospital/doctors etc. The issue is that now he's not required to "stay or 'be' " in a hospital ... ergo - no more 'free'.

 

[the 48th regulator]

In Australia Gold Card Veterans get 1st class national treatment for doctors and hospital stays for the rest of their lives at NO cost to them or their families.

Gold Card Vets includes all WW2, Korea, many Viet Nan, and other Vets under 70 yrs of age who have health problems caused from their active service.

OWDU

We have the exact same Card and care, for all of our Veterans, if they qualify for a disability pension through VAC's VIP Program.

http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/providers/sub.cfm?source=pro_infoguide/card

Veteran's Independence Program

He is in receipt of it, as he qualifies for the Residential Care



Australian Gold Card

I am empathetic to this man's plight, however, I believe his family can also do more by stepping up to the plate.

He wants to make it easier for them, to see him, not the other way around.



dileas

tess

 

[agenteagle]

This story doesn't make sense to me. My grandfather who was a world war 2 vet who just pass about a couple a months ago has been in the Trafalgar Lodge seniors home in Oakville. This was paid for by the Veterans Affairs for the last 8 years. I have been there and is super nice and one of the best seniors home. It was super expensive but my grandfather never paid a cent.

People from the VA would come by and ask him if he needed something as they said their wasn't many world war vets left.

Why would my grandfather get this get treatment and this vet get no assistance? They way they took care of  my grandfather was one of the many reason I just joined the CF and the Army.

Is it possible this vet has not contacted the VA to see what they can do for him?

 

[armyvern]

This story doesn't make sense to me. My grandfather who was a world war 2 vet who just pass about a couple a months ago has been in the Trafalgar Lodge seniors home in Oakville. This was paid for by the Veterans Affairs for the last 8 years. I have been there and is super nice and one of the best seniors home. It was super expensive but my grandfather never paid a cent.

People from the VA would come by and ask him if he needed something as they said their wasn't many world war vets left.

Why would my grandfather get this get treatment and this vet get no assistance? They way they took care of  my grandfather was one of the many reason I just joined the CF and the Army.

Is it possible this vet has not contacted the VA to see what they can do for him?

This vet has been offered a place in a residential care facility. But, the place he was offered was "too far" away for his family to visit him so he refused it. So, he is staying in the hospital -taking up a space that someone else could use - so he is being charged the "over & above" fee for continuing to utilize a bed he doesn't need. VAC is paying part of that cost.

I suppose that is the critical difference between your grandfather and this lad - you father was in a seniors home, this man was offered a place in one but refused it.

Aside: 30kms!! If that's "too far" for people to travel to see their dad ... holy crap over; mine's dead - I'd go a few thousand to see him if I could. Happy Father's Day dad.

 

[1feral1]

Let me check in that Vern.

Cheers,

Wes

 

[F.I.R.S.T.]

I think another part of the problem in general regarding long-term care facilities is that more seniors are living longer due to advances in medicine, which is going to cost us all even more as taxpayers in the future. I believe it's going to get much worse when the baby boomers start hitting their 60's and 70's.

That, along with the current recession which means less workers paying taxes into the system and more EI and other benefit payments being paid out of the system, would suggest to me that our tax dollars are to to be even more severely squeezed in the future. I don't believe the predicted $50 Billion deficit will improve anytime soon, especially as I've seen a higher percentage of part-time jobs being posted compared to a couple of years ago. Less disposable income could result in families looking for the cheapest long-term care home for their senior.

With regard to the family in the original article, I agree 30km is not that far to drive but maybe they would be tied to public transit to get there and back. I doubt it as they live in Oakville, but I do know someone living there for whom that is their only option by choice.