By Pam Wright
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Dresden’s beleaguered Park Street Place has been sold for $1.2-million, according to a Southwestern Ontario business magazine.
To date, no criminal charges have been leveled against the former operator of the seniors’ home regarding neglect of residents in 2023.
According to the publication’s webpage, the Dresden home was purchased by Ontario 1000728019 from another numbered company listed as 2615412 Ontario Inc.
Previously published reports show Pushpinder Brah named as the former executive director of Park Street Place.
The sale took place after the Retirement Home Regulatory Authority (RHRA) – the independent agency that oversees licensing for the province’s senior and retirement homes – revoked the license at Park Street Place when short staffing put residents “at risk of harm.”
As previously published in The Voice in October 2023, staffing issues prompted the RHRA to issue a “management order in extraordinary circumstances.” This led the RHRA to send a supervisor to take control of the home and oversee care.
Subsequently, the agency revoked the license for Park Street Place.
Last October’s RHRA report stated that short staffing had been going on for some time at the Dresden residence. However, things came to a head Sept. 25, 2023, when no staff were on site to provide care for residents or dispense critical medications.
The medications, including insulin for diabetics, were locked in a cupboard and no one on site had a key.
The report also stated a resident was injured when they fell from a wheelchair and the individual didn’t receive follow up care.
But Sept. 25, 2023 wasn’t the first time the RHRA was called to Park Street Place. Following an inspection earlier the same month, the home’s operator was issued a warning letter stating residents were not being bathed according to schedule.
As part of its mandate, the RHRA provided assistance to Park Street Place residents to help them find new homes and all were successfully relocated.
But when it comes to disciplining the former owner/operator, no answers are forthcoming.
In an email message from the RHRA in May, a public affairs officer stated it would be “inappropriate for the regulator to discuss or disclose details related to legal action it may be contemplating as it relates to any retirement home. If/when the regulator pursues legal action, such information will be disclosed at the appropriate time.
“The facility is now vacant, no longer operating as a retirement home, and as such the regulator has no jurisdiction under the Retirement Homes Act, 2010, over the privately owned building, or its future use,” the message said.
Chatham Coun. Alysson Storey, chair of Chatham-Kent’s Seniors Aging Well Committee, said it’s “deeply concerning” to see the safety and well-being of some of C-K’s most vulnerable residents put at risk.
“Every single facility in Chatham-Kent should be held to the highest standards when it comes to caring for our seniors and loved ones,” Storey said. “There must be accountability for what happened, and moving forward, to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
RHRA guidelines state that owners of a facility found to be in noncompliance can face a $50,000 fine for a first violation and a $200,000 fine for subsequent violations.
Last fall’s license revocation order stated the licensee was focused on reducing expenses and not ensuring resident needs and health were safeguarded, noting it was the deputy registrar’s opinion the licensee’s “financial and staffing mismanagement of the home is irresponsible, incompetent and prejudicial to resident health, safety and welfare.”
