Senior's Home In Premier Brad Wall's Constituency Plagued By Bed Bugs
Saskatchewan's Potash and Oil industries are booming. Billions in profits are rolling in to them steadily. Yet, services to the people of Saskatchewan - who actually own the natural resources - have never been more wanting. Here's an example: .. in the constituency represented by Premier Brad Wall, a local seniors home simply can't get the financial resources they need from the provincial government to eradicate an infestation of bed bugs!
Heritage Towers, a Saskatchewan Housing Authority seniors home in Swift Current, has a beg bug infestation and residents say the government is ignoring the problem.
Hilda Wiese, an 84-year-old resident of the towers, is one of the seniors who had to leave her home because of the infestation. She describes minimal effort in dealing with the problem – including treating only the rooms of seniors who complained – excluding other seniors’ rooms, common areas and hallways.
Wiese is currently back at home in Heritage Towers, but has cancelled her home care and is afraid to have visitors for fear the bedbugs are still in her room or will re-enter her room from the untreated hallways, common areas and neighbouring rooms.
“I’m just lucky that I have family members nearby who can help me, some people have no place to go,” said Wiese. “We deserve better.”
NDP Leader Cam Broten, who has been outspoken on the critical need to fix the conditions in Saskatchewan’s seniors care homes, wants the government to consider the problem a priority.
“Our parents, our grandmas and grandpas, deserve clean, safe homes,” he said. “To hear that this government is half-heartedly or even selectively dealing with this problem is a serious concern. This is yet another example of the kind of neglect that is becoming rampant in seniors care.”
Saskatchewan Official Opposition
