Ontario moved 424 people into nursing homes they didn't choose
CBC
More than 400 patients have been forced into Ontario nursing homes they did not want to go to and the rate of those moves is increasing, The Canadian Press has learned.
There were 424 discharged patients who moved to a nursing home not of their choosing out of 20,261 patients who were moved to long-term care homes since a law allowing such moves came into force in late 2022, the long-term care minister's office said.
About one-third of those patients were moved in just February and March, the last two months for which data was available.
And one woman faces a $26,000 hospital charge under the provisions of the law that her family doesn't plan to pay.
In the summer of 2022, a few months after Doug Ford and his Progressive Conservatives won a landslide victory in the election, the government introduced Bill 7 in an effort to open up much-needed hospital space. The province passed the bill into law within days, bypassing a study at committee, which sparked a firestorm of anger from the opposition and seniors.
The law is aimed at so-called alternate level of care patients who are discharged from hospital but need a long-term care bed and don't have one yet. Hospitals can send those patients to nursing homes not of their choosing up to 70 kilometres away, or up to 150 kilometres away in northern Ontario, if spaces open up there first.
If patients flat out refuse those transfers, hospitals can charge them $400 a day under the law.
Critics have said the vast majority of people in that situation would feel threatened enough by the prospect of massive fees that they would comply.
The Ministry of Health has said seven people across the province have been charged the $400-a-day penalty. It refuses to disclose the total amounts patients are being asked to pay, but at least one family has received a $26,000 bill.
Ruth Poupard and her daughter, Michele Campeau, are refusing to pay the bill and experts say it's unclear what will happen next.
"It's never gonna happen," Campeau said. "I will not stop until this bill is dead."
The southwestern Ontario family could face a lawsuit, collection agency — or nothing — by ignoring the hospital bill, experts say.
Poupard, who has lived through cancer, a heart valve transplant and progressing dementia, began her most recent health-care journey a few days after Christmas. The 83-year-old fell at home, where she lived with Campeau, who is also her power of attorney. Poupard broke her hip and needed emergency surgery.
She moved to Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare in Windsor, Ont., in February for rehabilitation. Her attending doctor discharged Poupard on Feb. 21, but she needed more care than her children could provide. The family decided on long-term care and made a list of five nursing homes Poupard preferred.
From the Detroit Lions losing to Apple iPhones that spontaneously update, Windsorites had things that bugged them this year.
Calgary emergency rooms are “in a state of critical overcapacity” ahead of the anticipated peak of flu season — and to cope with the surge and wait-room crowding, officials are urging doctors to speed up their decisions on whether to admit patients, according to a memo obtained by CBC News.
Northern Ontario's highway system needs improvements in order to make travel safer, a highway safety advocate said.
Hundreds of thousands of used tires are piling up across Ontario as some companies responsible for tire recycling have stopped processing tires amid reduced provincial recycling regulations for tire producers, industry experts say.
People in Guelph facing homelessness will soon have a new place to go during the day.
Islanders are reminded to plan their rides ahead of holiday festivities if they plan on drinking alcohol or using cannabis.
Even before Gwen Healey Akearok began her new role as Nunavut’s Minister of Family Services, she was tuning into the Office of the Auditor General’s (OAG) hearings on the state of the Family Services department.
The racial reckoning of the COVID era saw Canada grapple with its checkered past — a process that led to statues of some foundational figures being removed, in some instances by force.
Holiday traditions are front and centre for many people at this time of year. But one Uxbridge family's Christmas tradition goes above and beyond the standard Christmas carols or holiday party.
A pedestrian is dead, and police are investigating following a collision in a north London parking lot on Tuesday afternoon.
Police have lifted a shelter-in-place order for parts of St. John's.
Nova Scotia Power is providing more information about the cyberattack on the utility earlier this year and its response in the months that followed.
A rare old-growth forest in Quebec’s Mauricie region is at the centre of a growing conflict between conservation advocates and the provincial government, after forestry roadwork was authorized in an area currently under review for protected status.