A Nanaimo woman is concerned a home care worker may be stealing from her 93-year-old father.
Susan Tye, herself a registered resident care attendant, said her father, Doug Fairbanks, a veteran of the Second World War, has been receiving home support through Island Health for four years. He takes meticulous records of his spending, counting his money every day and began noticing money missing. She alleges $200 went missing May 10, $300 on July 12 and $70 on July 13.
Tye bought video cameras and set them up. While none of the surveillance footage shows the person stealing, a video does show the nurse sifting through her father’s wallet and another appears to show her rummaging through drawers in a bedroom.
video
“She came into the house [July 16] when she wasn’t scheduled to be here, portraying that she was on duty, and came in and went through his wallet and then promptly left and then when she came back two days later, when she was scheduled to be here, she went through his drawers in the bedroom,” said Tye.
Tye said Island Health told her the worker was not scheduled to be there, nor should she have been there.
Tye said that type of behaviour is not allowed and is “taboo.”
She said she brought the issue to Island Health’s attention and is expressing concern because she believes the nurse is still working.
Meribeth Burton, Island Health spokeswoman, told the News Bulletin the health authority is aware of the complaint, but does not discuss personnel issues. The health authority is in communication with the family and has launched an internal investigation, Burton said. Investigations can take between six weeks to four months, she said.
“There’s an investigation underway and the only thing investigators will say … is that any action that comes will be in accordance to the findings of the investigation and that could be any multitude of things, but we don’t know,” said Burton. “It’s really early stages.”
Nanaimo RCMP had not responded to a request for comment as of Friday afternoon.
