Winnipeg man seeks accountability after wife died failing to receive palliative care
Posted February 24, 2023 4:10 pm.
Last Updated February 26, 2023 4:28 pm.
Eric De Schepper is seeking accountability after his cancer-stricken wife died waiting for palliative care.
“It’s been very stressful. It’s been very demanding on me being her caregiver, and her advocate and her healthcare proxy,” said De Schepper.
“If Katherine received the homecare she needed right from the beginning or even the second week, if I would have received the respite workers that I required…Kathy would’ve had a far better quality of life in the remaining weeks of her life and the family would’ve been far less stressed out and traumatized.”
On Feb. 21 at 10:00 a.m., a homecare worker finally showed up to De Schepper’s door, but the timing was too late for him and his wife as she had already passed, feeling like a “slap in the face” to De Schepper.
The current government has not adequately staffed home care, and Debbie Boissonneaultt, president of Cupe 204, says the healthcare problem is a systematic one that needs to be addressed immediately.
“Homecare is a big issue where clients have been screaming for a long time that they’re missing services and it’s a little too late,” Boissonneaultt said. “This could’ve been prevented if they put more people in the system.
Tara-Lee Procter from the WRHA told CityNews in a statement, “I will be reaching out to speak to Mr. De Schepper directly for the opportunity to listen and to offer our condolences and apologies. The WRHA Home Care Program provides an incredibly valuable service to our community with care delivered by committed and compassionate professionals.”
“This situation nevertheless highlights that we need – and must – do better,” the statement continued. “I have asked today for a full review of the circumstances of this situation, along with our scheduling and management processes so that we prevent similar situations from happening in the future.”
De Schepper says he has filed a disclosure of wrongdoing with the Manitoba Ombudsman and hopes that something like this never happens to another family again.
