Lack of respect and communication in Ontario's health-care system highlighted by patient ombudsman report
CTV
Ontario’s patient ombudsman is warning that a strained health-care system has contributed to the more than 3,000 complaints his office has received last year.
Thousands of complaints lodged by Ontario patients last year detail a lack of communication, sensitivity, and respect between patients, their families, and caregivers while navigating the health-care system, a new report by the province's patient ombudsman suggests.
The report, to be released Tuesday morning, reveals that the patient ombudsman's office received a total of 3,306 complaints in the 2021/2022 fiscal year.
Just over sixty per cent of those complaints were made in relation to experiences at public hospitals. Another 10 per cent involved experiences within Ontario’s long-term care homes.
The other complaints were related to home and community care, as well as other health facilities.
According to the report, more than one in 10 patients or caregivers “expressed concerns about premature, unsafe or poorly planned discharges or transitions between care settings.” Visitation restrictions and wait times were also frequently the topic of complaints, it said.
While less complaints related to COVID-19 were lodged last year, Ombudsman Craig Thompson said the pandemic “has exposed existing vulnerabilities in our health system.”
“The complaints we received last year demonstrated the strain that everyone—both patients and care providers—is under,” Thompson wrote in the report.
