Attention: Task Editor
TORONTO, Nov. 21, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Ontario Health Coalition and the Seniors Advocacy Center launched a Constitutional Challenge this morning in response to the Ford government’s new law that forces elderly hospital patients in long-term care homes against their choice. The two groups will be co-applicants in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in what is known as a Charter Challenge, seeking a court order to strike down the law as a violation of the fundamental rights of patients affected by Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
On Sunday, November 20, the regulations under Bill 7, euphemistically titled More Beds Better Care Act (2022) went 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 law provides neither more beds nor better care. Instead, it affects patients, the vast majority of them elderly, who are called Alternative Level of Care (ALC) patients who are waiting for long-term care or other services. It enables hospitals and discharge planners to:
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assess the patient without their consent,
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share their personal health information with a variety of long-term care or other companies without their consent,
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complete their applications without their consent and;
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admit them to 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 no beds are available, any distance. If a patient refuses to go, the hospital is required to pay them $400 a day.
“The purpose of the legislation and the mandatory $400 fee is to intimidate and force seniors out of the hospital, to any destination, even those that are inappropriate,” said Jane Meadus, attorney and institutional counsel at the Advocacy Center for of the Elderly (ACE). . “Under this law, the personal health records of hospitalized seniors can be sent to any long-term care home without their consent, violating a fundamental right to privacy over health information enjoyed by every other Ontario citizen.”
“This law will result in seniors being forced into homes away from their spouses, to whom they may have been married for 50 or 60 years, making it impossible for them to visit, likely for the rest of life, causing unimaginable harm to both,” added lawyer Graham Webb who is the executive director of ACE. “They can now send a hospital patient to a long-term care home that is hours away from their home, resulting in family or loved ones not being able to visit regularly. As we saw during the COVID-19 lockdown, this deprivation caused untold harm and suffering to residents, and Bill 7 will once again impose that harm on this province’s seniors.
“Law 7 represents an unprecedented and scandalous deprivation of Charter the rights of many elderly and vulnerable hospital patients regarding their right to life, liberty and security of person and equality,” recounts Steven Shrybman, attorney at Goldblatt Partners LLP, counsel for the Health Coalition and ACE in the Charter Challenge . “Because the purpose of Bill 7 is to force some hospital patients, who can no longer be cared for at home, into a long-term care home that may have a terrible history and be away from their family and community , is a direct affront to the fundamental right to give informed consent to medical treatment.”
“Law 7 targets a group of people who are vulnerable and weak because of their physical or mental health problems and/or old age, and therefore their right to equality under Article 15 of Charter,” added Benjamin Piper, attorney at Goldblatt Partners LLP.
“We’ve been under a lot of pressure from Ontarians in general who are angry and fearful about being forced into long-term care homes that are far away or have terrible reputations,” said Natalie Mehra, executive director. “There is no doubt that there is a crisis in our hospitals – a crisis that is the result of government policy choice – the election to fund Ontario’s hospitals at the lowest rate in the country and to have the fewest beds of any province staffed and operating. Choosing not to do what is needed to improve the staffing crisis and build more public long-term care beds as soon as possible. There are many other solutions to the hospital crisis, but slipping on the basic rights of the elderly and dying is not one of them.”
“We are talking about elderly patients in the last months of their lives. They are human beings with the same right to compassion and care as all Ontarians. Their lives have value. They simply cannot be sent against their will to a place they fear going, away from their loved ones, where they will most likely die. Is wrong. We must challenge this, in principle,” she concluded.
The Ontario Health Coalition has compiled a list of long-term care homes with the longest waiting lists and the shortest waiting lists in each region of the province to illustrate where patients may be most likely to end up. Available at: https://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/wp-content/uploads/LTC-waitlist-data-final.pdf
The Ontario Health Coalition needs to raise funds to cover the costs of the Charter Challenge. To give a sense of the work we need to do, we need to find 500 people who will donate $1,000 each, 1,000 people who will donate $500 each, or 10,000 people who will donate $50 each, or 20,000 people who will will donate $25 each. If you can help, please donate here: https://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/index.php/donate-now/.
For more information: Natalie Mehra, executive director, Ontario Health Coalition cell (416) 230-6402; Graham Webb executive director and attorney, Senior Advocacy Center (416) 598-2656 x 230; Jane Meadus, attorney and institutional attorney, Advocacy Center for the Elderly (416) 995-7879; Steven Shrybman attorney, Goldblatt Partners (613) 858-6842; Attorney Ben Piper Goldblatt Partners (343) 575-4700.
