Retirement Homes Without Air Conditioning Raise Alarm During Heatwave
Posted July 31, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The setting: a place that sits in the centre of the city that doesn’t have any air conditioning.
The sad reality: it’s a Hamilton senior’s residence, where those most vulnerable to the conditions are suffering in silence.
Joana Fyfe is 86 years old. The temperature in her room closely approximates her age. She’s forced to keep the drapes drawn all day sitting in the dark to reduce the heat. And outside of a few small fans, there’s no real relief inside.
“I feel weak, I feel weak,” she emotes feebly. “I can’t stand the heat.”
Her daughter Frances is outraged that her mother is being made to live in such conditions.
“It’s awful, it’s awful,” she fumes, the anger apparent. “Why should she have to live like this?”
That’s what Hamilton NDP MPP Andrea Horwath wants to know.
She’s demanding the government establish minimum cooling requirements for nursing homes across the province.
While there are all kinds of rules and regulations governing nursing care facilities in Ontario – including heating the places during the winter – they’re not required by law to have air conditioning in all the rooms in the summer, just the common areas.
And provincial officials note many buildings are simply too old to be retrofitted for A.C.
“If we are prepared to say that people shouldn’t be freezing in the winter because of our climate, we should also acknowledge that our climate in the summertime can get to a point where people are made sick by the heat,” Horwath complains.
That has Frances hot under the collar. She’s started a petition to demand the rules be changed. “Somebody’s got to stand up for them,” she maintains.
Horwath is hoping to be that somebody.
“What we’d like to see is that the McGuinty government come forward with its Long Term Care Act and include in that act some minimum requirements for cooling facilities,” she demands.
The Liberals are introducing new legislation regulating long-term care homes, but it won’t be out until the fall, when things are a lot cooler.
In the meantime if you have concerns about a residence housing a loved one, call the Long Term Care Action Line at 1-866-434-0144.
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