Daughter pleads for dignity for mobility impaired

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This article was published 28/05/2025 (237 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Brandon woman is concerned that her mother — who is in a wheelchair and scheduled for surgery — will be deprived of the “dignity of using the bathroom” at Brandon Regional Health Centre because the toilet seats are too low.

Paula McMaster said it’s an ongoing problem for people with disabilities who are staying at the hospital and is something her family has experienced on a number of occasions.

“It is astonishing to me that our hospital is in that state,” McMaster said. “The toilets are too low, they’re not raised. My mom’s been disabled her entire life, and in today’s world, in a hospital, let alone a rehab portion of the hospital, to not have them — it’s just ridiculous.”

McMaster said she realized there was an issue with the height of the toilets over the last 12 months, when her dad and an aunt were hospitalized after surgeries. She said her mom was hesitant to visit.

“She didn’t want to go, she would make excuses, which would frustrate us as a family. But when her surgery date came up for June, (we found out) it was because she was scared that she’s going to have to go to the bathroom and wouldn’t be able to use it,” McMaster said.

“Can you imagine having to go to the bathroom and almost having an accident or maybe having an accident because you’ve got to try and figure out now how to get from your scooter or wheelchair onto a toilet that is super low?”

There are conflicting guidelines cited by different sources for toilet seat height requirements in a barrier-free washroom.

In Manitoba, the building requirement falls under the Manitoba Building Code, not accessibility legislation, a provincial government spokesperson told the Sun.

“Section 3.8 of the current version of the National Building Code contains rules for accessibility, including standards for ‘water closets’ which were adopted by Manitoba for its building code on Jan. 1, 2024,” the spokesperson said.

Under that section, the Manitoba Building Code specifies that in a barrier-free washroom, at least one water closet in the washroom must be equipped with a seat that is not less than 400 millimetres and not more than 460 millimeters from the floor, which is about 16 to 18 inches.

In contrast, the Canadian Standards Association outlines that accessible toilets should have seat heights between 460 millimeters and 485 millimeters, approximately 18 to 19 inches from the floor, “to facilitate the safe transfers from wheelchairs.”

In a public washroom on the main floor of BRHC, the seat of a barrier-free toilet measured 16 and a quarter inches from the floor, which is acceptable under Manitoba’s building code.

The height of toilet seats in the public washrooms met building codes and CSA guidelines at the time of construction in 2007, a PMH spokesperson told the Sun.

“However, in response to the recent concern, BRHC facility services is undertaking measuring all accessible public washroom toilet seat heights to ensure they meet the current height range specified in the CSA.”

The height of the seat matters, said McMaster.

“I know how it sounds. Two inches — why are we complaining? Go and sit on them, literally. Go and sit on one and then sit on a raised one. It is drastic change, and one that is important,” she said.

“It obviously starts with my mom, but then it also gets bigger to the whole community of disabled, injured, recovering people. And this is the quality of service that they have in our hospital?”

McMaster said she spoke with the director of operations for BRHC twice, once in May 2024 and again last week, about raising the height of the seats in the public washrooms and patient rooms.

“They had a year to comply with the simplest of fixes, and they didn’t do anything. How they don’t care enough to even try and fix it is beyond me,” she said.

Prairie Mountain Health said the official who could comment about McMaster’s complaint was not available until June 6.

“I just reassured him (the director of operations) that I was a dog with a bone, and I’m not letting this go. At minimum, the easy fix is a commode, because that will allow people to actually get on and off safely,” said McMaster.

“But to me there’s absolutely no excuse that you can give that I’m going to accept. Not one. They need to be changed, and they needed to be changed years ago.”

» mmcdougall@brandonsun.com

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