Photo: Google Street View
Glenmore Lodge opened in 2017
The issue of air conditioning in long-term care homes in the Southern Interior is on the radar of B.C.’s seniors advocate.
Isobel Mackenzie was surprised to learn that additional air conditioners had to be brought in to cool residents’ rooms at Glenmore Lodge in Kelowna earlier this week. The facility, with 118 units, 100 which are publicly funded, opened in 2017.
Castanet was contacted by someone who said the air-conditioning at Glenmore Lodge stopped working on August 7, and claimed that the temperature in some rooms was as high as 30 C.
The operators of the care home, Sienna Seniors Living, responded to our enquiries with this statement.
“Glenmore Lodge has AC throughout common areas of the building. With the unseasonably high temperatures, the team has also deployed additional AC units to ensure a comfortable temperature is maintained in resident rooms. The health and safety of residents and team members are our highest priority. We take daily temperature checks inside the home, and staff monitor residents to ensure they are always comfortable.”
That raises some serious questions for Mackenzie.
“Air conditioning needs to be in the individual units, not just the common areas. And if their way of dealing with it is we’re going to have portable air conditioners, okay, but then you need, you know, 118 portable air conditioners. They’ve got 118 units,” she said.
The seniors advocate also wonders if Interior Health made it a requirement to have air conditioning in each room when it issued the request for proposal for Glenmore Lodge prior to its construction.
She notes there are often different standards for facilities built and operated by health authorities and those built and operated by private contractors.
“This is part of this bigger question. Why is the contracted sector allowed these lower standards?
“They have an HVAC system. Next question is, is it in every room?
“Because I am surprised that a building built in 2017 in the Interior doesn’t have an air cooling mechanism in each room. That is surprising,” said Mackenzie.
Last summer during the heat dome we were contacted about the lack of air conditioning in the rooms of residents at David Lloyd Jones long-term care home in Kelowna.
Staff said they were exhausted and frustrated with having to work in sweltering conditions. The facility only has air conditioning in common areas. Fans were used in patient rooms, and doors to hallways were left open to try to keep them cool.
That building opened in 1979 and Mackenzie hopes when Interior Health looks at replacing it, the changing climate will be top of mind.
Mackenzie sat on the panel that reviewed the 619 heat-related deaths during last summer’s heat dome across southern B.C.
She notes that in the Interior, summer temperatures well above 30 C can linger for several days, and it doesn’t seem reasonable to move care home residents into common areas every time that happens.
“I will be following up on that as well because there is a focus…whether it’s a refurbishment or a new build, we’ve got to accommodate this air conditioning.”
Interior Health did not respond to a request for comment.