‘Just appalling’: B.C. woman denied access to her deceased mother’s health records

A Langley, B.C.,  pistillate says she is being denied entree to the records of her mother’s past days.

Gertrude Sharp, fondly known arsenic Trudy, passed distant past June astatine the property of 101 aft spending the past months of her beingness astatine the Cedar Hill Long-Term Care Facility astatine Langley Memorial Hospital.

“Amazing woman,” her girl Barbara said. “Just amazing. Way up of her time, right?”

She said her ma lived connected her ain until she was 95 erstwhile she had an mishap and moved successful with Barbara.

“I looked aft her arsenic she aged much and she became she became much mentally challenged with dementia, which happens to many, galore people,” Barbara said.

“As we know, it’s a precise unspeakable illness, but ever cheery, ever took her for her hairsbreadth each Saturday. You know, she loved to spell and play the slot instrumentality or, you know, bash amusive things. We would ever spell retired for dinner. I mean, she was a precise engaging person, very, precise afloat of life.”

After trying nationalist and backstage location attraction and trying to find a spot for her mother, Barbara had to determination her to semipermanent attraction astatine the opening of 2023.

“It is an perfectly horrific place,” she said. “It’s the one… by the Langley Hospital. I wouldn’t enactment my worst force successful there, but I had nary choice.”

Barbara said they enactment her parent successful a country with 3 different radical and she had superior concerns astir the attraction her ma received astatine the facility.

“They were precise wide to maine that they were not a registered dementia facility, but 80 per cent of their clients successful determination person dementia,” she added.

“So there’s nary training. Nobody knows what they’re doing and they don’t care. They conscionable dainty them similar numbers. It’s terrible.”

Barbara said her ma adjacent had an corruption successful her toed and the unit did not dainty it. She said her parent didn’t similar java and erstwhile she visited her 1 time she had java each implicit her blouse and unit had not cleaned her up.

“I cognize she was older and she had a bully beingness and each that, but she didn’t I didn’t similar her dying the mode she died,” Barbara said.

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“And she didn’t person to dice that soon if she’d had due care. And everybody has a right, careless of their age, to unrecorded longer and get due attraction nether our system.”

Barbara had Section 7 powers, allowing her to marque wellness and fiscal decisions for her mother.

“She gave maine the authorization to look aft her erstwhile she could nary longer bash it, her wellness attraction and her finances,” Barbara said. “So it’s conscionable appalling.”

Fraser Health has refused to manus implicit Trudy’s records, citing privacy.

“These radical refused to springiness maine accusation adjacent erstwhile she was inactive alive,” Barabara said.

“They wanted her to motion it, motion the petition for her aesculapian information. I said, ‘no, no, no, no, here’s my afloat Rep 7 agreement’. Didn’t matter. They inactive didn’t privation to springiness it to me.

“And past erstwhile she passed distant and I asked for aesculapian records, of course, 1 of the things connected the petition is, what bash you privation this for? So I said negligence, right? Well, of people they’ve refused to springiness it to maine wholly now.”

In a statement, B.C. Health Information Management says Sharp’s grounds petition was denied due to the fact that she did not beryllium she was acting successful the involvement of her mother.

“She’s lived with maine for 5 years, giving maine implicit authorization implicit everything to marque definite that she’s looked aft and they’re refusing because, well, she has privateness rights adjacent aft she’s passed away,” Barbara said.

“I don’t disagree that radical person privateness rights aft their passing. But she gave maine the authority.”