(September 23, 2024) By: CHCH News<\/p>\n
It has been called an infringement of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and now it is being challenged in court as one.<\/p>\n
The More Beds, Better Care Act was designed to move discharged patients out of hospitals and into long-term care homes, not of their choice \u2014 or face a fine of $400 a day.<\/p>\n
On Monday, the first day of a court hearing around its constitutionality began.<\/p>\n
For Gail Herrington, it left her with no other choice after her husband Rick Pinto had emergency hip surgery. Only three weeks had passed before she was told by hospital staff her husband had to leave.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was literally forced to sign paperwork because they said I couldn\u2019t take him home, so he has to go somewhere else,\u201d she recounted to CHCH News. \u201cWithin a day or two, they said he was accepted,\u201d and Pinto was placed into a holding hospital.<\/p>\n
All the while, Herrington said his health was continuing to deteriorate. Herrington said Pinto fell into a bad bout of sepsis, and just two months into the ordeal, he died.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe should have never left the hospital, but I was told he had to,\u201d Herrington said.<\/p>\n
Constitutional Crisis<\/p>\n
The Ontario Health Coalition and the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly argue that Bill 7 removes the choice of where these patients will spend their final days.<\/p>\n
The groups say that while patients may no longer require hospital care, they shouldn\u2019t be forced to live somewhere they don\u2019t want to or pay $400 a day to stay in a hospital.<\/p>\n
However, when Premier Doug Ford was asked about the bill and the charter challenge, he said patients receive better care in long-term care homes than they do in hospitals.<\/p>\n
\u201cA hospital is not the place to drop off your mother or father. They may not get their first choice, but they will get their second choice and move on a list to get their first choice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Ontario Health Coalition says the government is fueling a narrative that older adults or their families want to stay at hospitals when that\u2019s not the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cMostly people would like to go either home or to a long-term care home, but they just don\u2019t want to go to the one they are being forced to,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n