Ford government’s new law forcing elderly patients into long-term care homes against their choice
$400 per day penalties kick in for the elderly on Sunday
TORONTO, Nov. 18, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On Sunday November 20, regulations under Bill 7, the euphemistically titled More Beds Better Care Act (2022) come into effect, requiring hospitals to charge elderly patients $400 if they refuse to go to a long-term care home or other service against their will.
Despite the title given to it by the Ford government, the Act neither provides more beds nor better care.
Instead, it affects patients, the vast majority of them elderly, who are called Alternate Level of Care (ALC) patients waiting for long-term care or other services. It enables hospitals and discharge planners to:
- assess the patient without their consent,
- share their personal health information to an array of long-term care or other companies without their consent,
- fill in their applications without their consent, and;
- admit them into long-term care homes or other services without their consent.
In Southern Ontario patients will be transferred up to 70 km away. In Northern Ontario, patients can be transferred up to 150 km away, or if there are no beds available, any distance. As of Sunday, if a patient refuses to go, the hospital is required to charge them $400 per day.
| What: | Media conference releasing details about a Constitutional challenge -- called a Charter Challenge -- to Bill 7. |
| When & Where: | Monday, November 21 at 9:45 a.m. in person at Queen’s Park media studio, Toronto |
| Monday, November 21 at 11 a.m. by Zoom for cross-province media. Media must register to attend and a Zoom link will be emailed to you. Register here: | |
| https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAkd-ugqj8vHtMx6_zUe2oaSqOh9IJui7cA | |
| Who: | Lawyer Benjamin Piper, Goldblatt Partners |
| Lawyer & Executive Director, Graham Webb, Advocacy Centre for the Elderly | |
| Executive Director, Natalie Mehra, Ontario Health Coalition |
For more information: Natalie Mehra cell (416) 230-6402.
