Paul Fanelli has been living in a room without a proper heating or cooling unit since he arrived at Spring Valley Care Centre in December 2021.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Lynn Fanelli

The wife of a senior in a Kelowna long-term care home who went without heat for days is furious about the treatment of her husband.

Lake Country resident Lynn Fanelli said her husband Paul Fanelli moved into the Spring Valley Care Centre after being discharged from Kelowna General Hospital, Dec. 19, following treatment for cancer.

“They put him into a room with no permanent heat source and I got there a couple of days later after work and realized he had been sitting in a freezing cold room for two or some days,” she said.

Fanelli complained and staff brought in a small space heater that he’s been living with ever since. But she brought up more concerns last month when a toilet overflowed in the unit and she found the water a short distance away from the heater.

Spring Valley Care Centre in Rutland, Kelowna.

(CARLI BERRY / iNFOnews.ca)

“That’s when I really lost my loo-loo,” she said, adding to resolve the issue, they removed the toilet paper to the bathroom and gave Paul toilet paper by his bed stand. The next day she returned to see there was no toilet paper beside Paul’s bed.

“They lived up to a maximum of 12 days without any toilet paper,” she said.

In January, families of residents were told by the operational management team the heating and cooling system was broken in the building and families are expected to supply their own cooling units for the summer at their own costs. They were told they also had to be careful to not overload the electrical in the building with the purchased cooling units, she said.

Paul’s mobility has been hampered with Parkinson’s disease but his heart and internal organs are strong, she said. He had his 72 birthday last month.

“I can’t handle the injustice and I have not had any resolve from Interior Health,” she said, adding she’s trying to get Paul transferred to another facility but hasn’t been successful at this time.

READ MORE: Kelowna woman trying to ensure seniors in care are treated better than her mother was

Fanelli has started an online petition addressed to Health Minister Adrian Dix to mandate maintenance work in B.C. senior care homes.

She would like to see an amendment to the Community Care and Assisted Living Act, requiring care homes to have a 25-year capital replacement plan, with mandatory reviews every five years and penalties for not complying. It has gathered 185 signatures as of Feb. 7.

The petition is available at change.org.

Spring Valley Care Centre is privately owned by Park Place Seniors Living, based out of Vancouver but Interior Health supplies a care licence to the facility. It has 150 beds with eight semi-private rooms and 114 private rooms, according to the health authority's website.

Facilities must meet certain care requirements including regulations for physical care, food and their environment including appropriate heating and cooling systems, said Interior Health South vice-president of clinical operations Dr. Shallen Letwin.

Spring Valley maintains a good heating and cooling environment for its residents, he said.

“Our licensing department regularly inspects the site... and while the specific issues we can’t really speak to, we’re confident Spring Valley maintains their regulations that they need to support the clients and their families in this type of area.”

It is the obligation of the facility to have heating and cooling, “so that would be part of the review process to ensure that occurs,” he said.

Interior Health is working with Park Place and the family of the resident to resolve the issue, he said.

Spring Valley Care Home did not return a request for comment by deadline, Feb. 7.

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