A Regina seniors' care home agrees that the dinner it served to residents on Christmas consisting of some cold cuts and a white bun was "disappointing," but is defending its nutrition standards.
"It was a disappointing supper," Pioneer Village executive director Debbie Sinnet told reporters Monday.
"It's not our usual quality of supper and we would have liked to have offered our residents something that was more in line with the Christmas Day and the festive season. But it was a miss. It was a miss on one meal."
Sinnet was forced to address a throng of reporters Monday, after the daughter of one of Pioneer Village's residents posted a picture on Facebook of the dinner her 83-year-old father was served on Christmas.
She said the cold cuts, bun and watery potato salad he received would not meet anyone's idea of a nutritious meal.
When asked for comment over the weekend, the care home was quick to point out that residents were served a traditional Christmas meal at lunchtime, consisting of turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing and turnips.
It also notes that the cold cut plate is a staple of its four-week meal rotation. But Sinnet said the plate is usually served with a vegetable soup, and the soup was somehow forgotten in the hectic day.
Stephanie Cook, the director of nutrition and food services at the Regina-Qu'Appelle Health Region, says there is balanced nutrition in the facility's menu when it is looked at as a whole.
While it may have been only one meal and one family making a complaint, the picture was shared thousands of times, and many commented that the meal was indicative of larger problems at long-term care homes in Saskatchewan.
Nutrition was an area of concern last year after health region CEOs offered provincial officials tours of senior facilities. After those tours, the province provided a one-time, $10-million payment to help address the problems.
Saskatchewan’s NDP says there is also a problem of chronic understaffing in seniors' homes, which has led to several incidents of neglect of residents. They have been arguing for minimum care standards in the province.
Saskatchewan NDP Leader Cam Broten says the fact that the photo of the cold cuts gained so much public attention is noteworthy.
"It’s a heartbreaking development but it’s also a positive development in the sense that families want to speak out and want to share," Broten told reporters Monday.
"That raises this issue in everyone's awareness. And hopefully, it causes the government to wake up, pull its head out of the sand and recognize that some changes need to be made."
Minister of Health Dustin Duncan says wide-sweeping changes are in the works.
"They're doing things like moving to a more relaxed breakfast to allow residents to have more choice at breakfast and also to allow for more timely hot meals to be prepared; looking at changing the way they do food carts," he said.
With a report from CTV Regina's Morgan Campbell
