Seniors fed up with Barrie retirement home
Some residents of a Barrie retirement residence are speaking out, saying conditions in the home have significantly worsened throughout the pandemic.
Allandale Station Retirement Residence is a retirement home located along Barrie's waterfront. According to Murray Patterson, the president of its residential council, the management of the home is ignoring the problems.
"We've got residents here that have not had the rooms cleaned for three weeks or more," says Patterson. "We're complaining, but they just say they don't have the staff."
The residence is home to more than 100 senior citizens who pay approximately $5,000 monthly.
Multiple residents tell CTV News staff has been reduced, leading to services and care being scaled back.
"We were led astray when we inquired about it. They said it was going to be a good place, it was going to be this and that, and it's gone downhill," says Wilma Irwin.
Some of the raised concerns include intermittent hot water, broken down service elevators and an improperly-staffed kitchen. When cooks have failed to show up for work on weekends, residents have been left with cereal or fast food options for breakfast.
"We pay a fair amount of money for our meals here, and the manager should not have to come in and serve meals to us and go out and buy it," says Patterson.
Some residents tell CTV News that the situation has only worsened over the last week as they have lost some of their freedom. The key fobs that are used to enter the facility have been taken, meaning residents can no longer easily come and go after 8 p.m.
"If we take our dog for a walk, we have to buzz the buzzer and have a nurse off the second floor come down and let us in," says Amelia McFadden, a resident of the home.
In a statement to CTV News, the management company for the residence responded to the concerns saying in part, "We're sorry that we've had some shortcomings in services.
Unfortunately, like all retirement and long-term care homes as well as other industries, our staffing levels have been affected by the labour shortage and other impacts of COVID-19."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are headed to St. John's, N.L., after a plane overshot a runway at the city's airport this afternoon.
A teen was found buried in a basement in New York. An engraved ring helped police learn her identity two decades later
For more than two decades, the unknown victim was nicknamed "Midtown Jane Doe" because she was found in the Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood of New York City. But this week, investigators finally revealed her identity.