Nearly three-hundred people in Ontario have been moved from hospitals to long-term care homes not of their choosing under a law the government implemented over a year ago.
The law can see those patients placed in homes up to 70 kilometres away — or 150 kilometres if they are in northern Ontario — without their consent.
The Ministry of Long-Term Care has not previously publicly disclosed the numbers of patients moved under those new rules, but Long-Term Care Minister Stan Cho’s office now confirms to The Canadian Press that two-hundred-and-ninety-three alternate-level-of-care patients were admitted to homes they didn’t choose between September 2022 and January of this year.
Hospitals can charge the patients four-hundred-dollars a day if they refuse the transfer, but Cho says he has not been made aware of any fines being issued under the law.
CANADIAN PRESS