![\"Elderly](\"https:\/\/www.vmcdn.ca\/f\/files\/shared\/health\/elderly-care-shutterstock.jpg;w=960\")
<\/p>\n(November 24, 2022)<\/p>\n
By: Darren Taylor, SooToday.com<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Stock image<\/em><\/p>\n The Ontario Health Coalition<\/a> and the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly has taken its fight against Ontario\u2019s controversial Bill 7 to court.<\/p>\n Under the new legislation, hospital patients in Alternate Level of Care – ALC – awaiting placement in their preferred long term care home can be moved to a LTC home not of their choosing.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just so egregious in terms of what it does to families,\u201d said Al Dupuis, Blind River-based Ontario Health Coalition spokesperson for the Algoma District.<\/p>\n There are 38,000 people on the wait list for long-term care in Ontario, according to the OHC.<\/p>\n \u201cThe chances are there may not be a home in the Sault, in Sudbury or Timmins that has a space so you could be shipped off anywhere in the province, from what we\u2019re told by the legal experts,\u201d Dupuis told SooToday on Wednesday.<\/p>\n \u201cAt this time, no patients designated as requiring an Alternate Level of Care have been moved under Bill 7 from Sault Area Hospital. As of November 21, 2022, SAH has 56 patients designated as requiring an Alternate Level of Care, 13 of those await Long-Term Care,\u201d wrote Brandy Sharp Young, SAH spokesperson in an email to SooToday on Tuesday.<\/p>\n The Ontario Health Coalition (OHC) and the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly co-applied on Monday to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in what is known as a Charter Challenge, seeking a court ruling to strike down Bill 7 as a violation of the fundamental rights of patients under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.<\/p>\n Bill 7 – also known as the More Beds, Better Care Act – was passed by the Ford government and came into effect in September.<\/p>\n The government says the new law is necessary in order to free up bed space for hospital patients needing acute care.<\/p>\n As a result, patients in southern Ontario could be moved to a LTC home up to 70 kilometres away from their families, while those in the Sault and northern Ontario may be moved up to 150 kilometres away.<\/p>\n As of Nov. 20, if an elderly ALC patient refuses to go, the hospital is required to charge that patient $400 per day.<\/p>\n The OHC says Bill 7 enables hospitals and discharge planners to:<\/p>\n \u201cBill 7 represents an unprecedented and egregious deprivation of the Charter rights of many elderly and vulnerable hospital patients in respect of both their right to life, liberty and security of the person and to equality,\u201d wrote Steven Shrybman, lawyer at Golblatt Partners LLP, acting as counsel for the Ontario Health Coalition and the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly in the Charter Challenge.<\/p>\n Shrybman wrote that Bill 7\u2019s aim is to coerce \u201ccertain hospital patients who can no longer be cared for at home into being placed in a long-term care home that may have a terrible record and be far from their family and community.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a direct affront to the fundamental right to give informed consent to medical treatment,\u201d Shrybman wrote.<\/p>\n Sault MPP Ross Romano, in a\u00a0September interview<\/a><\/span> with SooToday, said \u201cthere is no one being moved against their will.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to work to ensure we\u2019re keeping families together. We\u2019re going to ensure that this is done in a very respectful way. No one is going to move a patient into an area where they don\u2019t have the support that they\u2019re going to need.\u201d<\/p>\n Romano acknowledged that ALC patients may be asked if they want to take a long term care bed not of their choosing, but said such a move would be temporary and that those patients wouldn\u2019t have to wait for long to have a bed in a place where they would prefer to be due to new government spending on more LTC beds.<\/p>\n But the OHC doesn\u2019t buy that.<\/p>\n \u201cSome people might think we\u2019re in a crisis caused by COVID and this is a special circumstance, or this solution would only be temporary and then the patient would be moved into a home that\u2019s closer. All of those things are bogus,\u201d Dupuis said.<\/p>\n Ila Watson, SAH president and CEO, speaking at a\u00a0September hospital board meeting<\/a><\/span>\u00a0said that SAH – like other Ontario hospitals – will abide by Bill 7.<\/p>\n \u201cWe recognize that difficult decisions must be made, however we are committed to ensuring that this legislation is implemented in a compassionate and respectful way that aligns with our hospital values,\u201d Watson said.<\/p>\n The OHC\u00a0is shooting back over official statements that Bill 7 will be carried out compassionately.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know how you do something like that – tear a family apart – with compassion and respect,\u201d Dupuis said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf that’s a reflection of the values of the administrators running our hospitals, then I think we\u2019ve got a problem with that too, not just with government officials but perhaps officials who are worried about their positions and not wanting to take a stand against this.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow do you override someone\u2019s consent and assess them without their consent compassionately?\u201d said Natalie Mehra, OHC executive director, speaking to SooToday from Toronto on Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cHow do you threaten them with $400 a day penalties if they don\u2019t go to a long-term care home not of their choosing to die? How is that in any way compatible with a notion of compassion?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Bill targets one group of people – the frail elderly – who are waiting for care in long-term care, to strip them of their fundamental rights, their rights to privacy of their health information, their right not to be assessed against their will, their right to choose where they live for the last months and years of their lives,\u201d Mehra said.<\/p>\n \u201cFundamentally that\u2019s wrong but on an emotional level, we know what this is going to mean. We just saw, in the pandemic, people die in long-term care, isolated from their families. They starved. The care that families provide in long-term care is vital. It\u2019s not an exaggeration to say some people died of dehydration and starvation because their families couldn’t come in and feed them. They died of depression and loneliness.\u201d<\/p>\n Bill 7 will bring that same serious, often fatal separation from family members, Mehra said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis Bill is going to do that again. It\u2019s unacceptable on every level.\u201d<\/p>\n Neither does the Act provide more beds or better care, Dupuis said.<\/p>\n He said the solution for health care is more beds and more, better paid nurses in hospitals.<\/p>\n \u201cThe crisis in hospitals is not being caused by ALC patients but nonetheless the elderly are being targeted by this legislation and forced by way of exorbitant extra fees to move out of hospitals.\u201d<\/p>\n OHC is hopeful its Charter Challenge will strike down Bill 7 in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d like to think that it stands a pretty good chance because on the face of it, to a lay person, it\u2019s pretty clear that people\u2019s rights are being taken away from them,\u201d Dupuis said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to court because we think there is a clear violation of the Charter here and the court should strike down the law. I\u2019m confident we can succeed in that, otherwise we wouldn\u2019t do it. Clearly it\u2019s a violation of the Charter Of Rights,\u201d Mehra said.<\/p>\n In court, the government is certain to state Bill 7 is necessary to free up hospital beds.<\/p>\n But the OHC\u00a0says it believes the government\u2019s argument won\u2019t stand because of the extraordinary consequences faced by patients affected by the new law, bad conditions in some of the long-term care homes likely to have room for transferred ALC patients and the small impact Bill 7 would have on the large, systemic woes the health care system is facing.<\/p>\n With ALC patients left with no apparent recourse, the OHC and the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly are fighting for those who will be affected by Bill 7.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re trying to move it forward as quickly as we can because people who are in this situation, being pushed out of hospitals into places all over, there\u2019s no recourse, there\u2019s no appeal in the legislation, there\u2019s nothing they can do, even if it causes horrific suffering for the person and their family,\u201d Mehra said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the only thing we can do to fight this. We think it can be heard within the year. Constitutional challenges don\u2019t move quickly so we have to push it as quickly as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n While the case is in court, the OHC would like to see the public apply some pressure.<\/p>\n \u201cAppeal to the consciences of the medical staff. People can contact Conservative MPPs and pressure them to withdraw the Bill. They have made a political decision to bring in this Act and they can revoke it,\u201d Mehra said.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, the Ontario government introduced its controversial Bill 28, which imposed a contract on 55,000 CUPE-represented education workers and stopped them from striking, but repealed the legislation in the face of an enormous backlash.<\/p>\n OHC is hopeful Bill 7 will create a similar stir and force the government to repeal it.<\/p>\n Dupuis is urging people affected by Bill 7 and their families to contact the Ontario Health Coalition and share their stories.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the reasons the education workers were successful was that their story got traction. We would like to see people start coming forward with their personal stories, to have people reach out to us,\u201d Dupuis said.<\/p>\n Dupuis said the OHC can be reached\u00a0online<\/a><\/span>, on Facebook,\u00a0email<\/a><\/span> or by phone at 1 416 441 2502.<\/p>\n \u201cI know that there\u2019s going to be more campaigning around this issue and hospital privatization. There are campaigns and town halls and I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if there are picket lines, especially if we start learning of people being put in this position,\u201d Dupuis said.<\/p>\n\n