Ste Anne de Bellevue Veteran's Hospital Catch 22

Yesterday, I am told, there was a press conference at the Veteran's Hospital at Ste. Anne de Bellevue. They are, apparently, opening the facility up to civilians as they have over a thousand workers and only 400 patients.

As I wrote in the previous blog, my father in law, 90, who lives with us, is very ill in hospital and may not be able to return for he may not be strong enough to walk or dress himself.

He is a veteran, so we phoned the Veteran's hospital, last week, which happens to be but a hop skip and a jump from where we live, to see if he was eligible to be cared for there.

No.

Although my father-in-law is a veteran, a flying instructor in Ontario, he did not go overseas. It has long been the rule at the Veteran's Hospital that servicemen who did not go overseas cannot be treated there. This made sense, I guess, in early part of the century, when there were too many veterans alive and needing care. But now, when the Veteran's Hospital is begging for new patients, this rule still exists. A bit of nonsense, if I ever heard. A piece of bureaucratic claptrap. Why can't all war veterans go to the hospital if they need care and that hospital is crying for new patients?

Well, this very question was posed by reporters at the press conference, yesterday. (They couldn't believe this rule, all considered.) Yes, it is the rule and it cannot be changed, someone admitted.

One reporter told my husband (who works at at TV station) that my father in law would have more luck getting into the Veteran's Hospital at Ste Anne de Bellevue AS A CIVILIAN.

My father, an allied (British ) soldier was cared for at the Veteran's Hospital He had Alzheimer's.. It was wonderful there for him. They have so many good staff and volunteers, all bilingual. We had trouble getting him in, as he was British, but my mother found his RCAF log book. He flew for the RCAF, as the Ferry Command was headquartered at Dorval. So they admitted him. We lived twenty minutes away and we could visit him often, as well.

It would be wonderful if my father in law, who speaks and understands no French (and alas, he can't hear well anyway) could be taken care of at the Veteran's, as my father was. We could visit him regularly, my husband on his way to work every day. (Wherever my father in law is placed (if necessary) my husband, his son, will surely visit him every day, because that is who he is. That's why my father in law lives with us, because my husband is a devoted son.

If we are lucky, my father in law will get into another nursing facility nearby, in Rigaud,where we are told the staff is unilingualFrench but many of the patients are English, from this area. But he will find it hard, as he is finding it hard at the hospital he is in, for the nurses speak little English.

My father in law, who was in WWII for the duration, didn't go oversees. The fact is, he risked his life as much as anyone, teaching young boys to fly 'on the fly' so to speak. He has wonderful stories of recruits panicking and planes almost crashing. It all makes no sense at all.