Wascana Rehab patient upset about meal choices

Patient upset by food served at Wascana Rehab A patient at the Wascana Rehabilitation Centre is upset about the food choices. Madina Azizi reports.

Chelsea Dreher is a patient at Wascana Rehabilitation Centre. For the last five years, she says she's been eating meals that make her stomach turn.

"The quality is just grotesque and nobody wants to eat it. And it’s like how can you get well if you don’t eat well? It doesn’t work,” Dreher said.

For lunch on Thursday, Dreher was given an egg salad sandwich, a piece of cake and milk. She is concerned with the amount of starch that comes with her daily meal and the lack of colour.

"There’s not really any good meat, or fruit or veggies. It’s just not acceptable at all, because you are dealing with people who have accidents, or they are ill or they are older or they are recuperating,” she said. “It just astounds me."

On Wednesday, Dreher shared a picture of her dinner on Facebook and attracted lots of attention. Now, she has created a Facebook page where she will be posting her meal every day for two weeks to show what she's being served.

But the health region says Dreher's picture is not accurate.

"There’s a minimum of two hot entrees and always a sandwich if someone prefers that. There’s a variety of deserts of beverages to select from, there’s always at least one, if not two, vegetables and a salad. So, there are a lot of opportunities to self-select a very nutritious meal,” said Stephanie Cook from Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region, adding that it is sometimes difficult to account for all 320 patients’ preferences.

However the health region says that they are more than happy to assist patients with complaints. But, Dreher says she has voiced her concerns and hasn’t received a response.

"The response that I’ve gotten from RQHR hasn’t really been existent,” she said. “They haven’t issued me acknowledgment that they have understood my concern, but I’m hoping that they will.”

While Dreher waits for a response, she says she is stuck with dry meals and many more days of posts to prove it.

"At the end of the day you get to go home, you get to eat,” she said. “What do we get to do?”