Photo: Contributed
A row of wheelchairs on the tarmac where a plane full of nursing home patients is being transferred from the Central Okanagan to the Lower Mainland.
A Peachland woman describes a chaotic scene when her 90-year-old father was moved from one nursing home to another in the middle of the night.
Lynn Sweet tells Castanet that her father Walter McMechan, along with the rest of the residents and staff at Lakeview Lodge in West Kelowna, was evacuated from midnight overnight.
“The way this has been done, I don’t blame anyone, but I think the government should have contingency plans for situations like this.”
Sweet says she got a call at 2am on Tuesday to tell her that her father was being taken across the lake to Glenmore Lodge in Kelowna.
“They had to put him somewhere. They are all in hallways. My father slept on a chair, it was absolute chaos,” says Sweet.
Sierra Living, the company that operates both nursing homes, followed Interior Health’s evacuation guidelines. Castanet reported Monday that residents of Smith Creek Village and Lakeview Lodge have been relocated mainly to local locations in the parish, but some have been sent to the Lower Mainland depending on where their families are and their care needs.
None of the nursing homes were with evacuation orders or alarm areas, and moving residents was a precautionary measure.
Sweet says that her father has dementia and was very confused by all of the activities. “He knows he’s out of his surroundings, but he’s not getting the answers he wants, which increases his dementia and anger.”
Castanet reached out to Sierra Living and learned that the nursing home was complying with Interior Health evacuation orders and that 114 patients had been moved overnight from West Kelowna to Kelowna.
“It started at midnight and went on all night. Everyone did a great job. We brought beds and everyone is now settled in, now everyone is doing really well,” said a spokeswoman for Sienna Living.
Meanwhile, Faith Greenwood tells Castanet that she had no idea her mother was being relocated from Brookhaven.
“A friend called me Monday night at 10am because she saw a story on Castanet,” she said.
Greenwood says she was desperately trying to get information about her mother, but “due to the COVID-19 outbreak in Brookehaven, I haven’t spoken to my mother in three weeks, as per her ban requirements. You need a better plan for contacting families as the situation develops. “
Photo: Contributed
