{"id":19338,"date":"2022-08-25T16:01:54","date_gmt":"2022-08-25T20:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/?p=19338"},"modified":"2022-08-25T16:01:54","modified_gmt":"2022-08-25T20:01:54","slug":"fact-checker-release-ford-governments-claims-re-forcing-elderly-patients-into-long-term-care-in-contravention-of-their-right-to-consent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/index.php\/fact-checker-release-ford-governments-claims-re-forcing-elderly-patients-into-long-term-care-in-contravention-of-their-right-to-consent\/","title":{"rendered":"FACT CHECKER & RELEASE: <\/FONT> Ford Government\u2019s Claims Re. Forcing Elderly Patients into Long-Term Care in Contravention of their Right to Consent"},"content":{"rendered":"

(August 25, 2022)<\/p>\n

Toronto \u2013 Here are the facts about the Ford government\u2019s new legislation, Bill 7 \u2013 More Beds, Better Care Act, 2022<\/em><\/a><\/span>, <\/em>which was introduced in the Legislature last week and is currently under debate. The government has made an array of claims, some of which have been printed in major media stories, that do not accord with the facts. Here are the facts:<\/p>\n

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  1. There are 38,000<\/a><\/span> people waiting for a long-term care home in Ontario. The reason that there are Alternate Level of Care (ALC) patients in hospitals waiting for LTC is the LTC wait list. The only long-term care homes that do not have long waiting lists are those to which people do not want to go.<\/li>\n
  2. The pandemic exposed horrific conditions of care and living in some long-term care homes. Despite numerous promises, accountability for the operators exposed for providing such substandard care has not happened. There have been no fines for failure to provide care. No licenses have been revoked. Annual comprehensive inspections of all homes have not been reinstated. Many people are frightened to go to homes which have histories of poor compliance with the law and poor outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic. These are the homes that have spaces into which patients could be forced.<\/li>\n
  3. The majority of \u201cALC patients\u201d are not, in fact, waiting for long-term care. Many ALC patients are waiting for another type of hospital care (rehabilitation, complex continuing care, mental health beds) for which all hospital beds are full. Targeting one patient population (the elderly and persons with chronic illness\/disability) and suspending their fundamental rights is discriminatory. They have an equal right to health care as a patient waiting in emergency departments, or an ALC patient waiting for rehabilitation. Their lives have value and their needs are legitimate. In addition, the claim that a significant portion of ALC patients are waiting for home care is false. Generally, patients are now discharged to wait at home for home care. Advocates have been concerned about this \u201cwait at home\u201d strategy as patients can be promised home care that does not materialize.<\/li>\n
  4. After decades of downsizing Ontario has the fewest hospital beds per capita<\/span><\/a> of any province in Canada. In fact, Canada is very low among all OECD nations in terms of hospital beds per capita, and Ontario is almost at the bottom of the entire OECD. The Ontario government\u2019s policy of hospital downsizing is one of the most radical in the developed world which has resulted in serious impacts on patients. Ontario funds its hospitals at the lowest rate in Canada. (Hospital funding by provinces as a proportion of provincial GDP<\/span><\/a> and per person<\/a><\/span>.) Patients are not at fault for the lack of proper health care planning and resourcing. The result is that the competition for scarce resources has been devastating to the elderly and those with chronic needs.<\/li>\n
  5. The new legislation clearly, overtly, does the following:\n