Peter Stoffer urges Ottawa to open veterans hospitals to all vets

The NDP is urging the federal government to expand access to long-term care beds for all Canadian Forces and RCMP veterans.

Veterans Affairs critic Peter Stoffer stood outside the Camp Hill Veterans Hospital in Halifax with fellow MPs Megan Leslie and Robert Chisholm on Thursday morning.

They were joined by Ernest Campbell, who signed up with the army in 1953, and the daughter of veteran Robinson Blackhurst.

Campbell prefers the hospital setting. 

"This way here, I've got people my own age that I can sit down and talk to. Where at home, I've got nobody to talk to but my wife, and she doesn't know much about the military," Campbell said.

Blackhurst recently suffered a stroke and is being cared for at the Dartmouth General. His daughter Sandy says he now requires long term care.

"He has to stay in hospital until we can find some permanent care for him. He's not able to come home anymore," she said.

Stoffer said many veterans hospital centres across the country have vacant beds, but some veterans are being restricted from admission.

Federal regulations limit eligibility to these centres to Second World War and Korean War veterans.

Stoffer says Camp Hill alone has 11 empty beds.

"A veteran is a veteran is a veteran," said Chisholm in a release. "With empty beds, it makes sense to allow a younger generation of veterans access to these exceptional veteran care centres."

Camp Hill is operated by Capital Health.

Stoffer says the federal government needs to step up and help prevent the downloading the cost of looking after veterans to facilities run on provincial dollars.