Seven people in Ontario have been fined for refusing transfers from a hospital to a long-term care home not of their choosing.
A law enacted in 2022 requires hospitals to levy fines of $400 a day on patients who can be discharged but need long-term care and are refusing to go to a home selected for them by a placement co-ordinator.
The government has long said it was not aware of anyone being fined, with Long-Term Care Minister Stan Cho saying as much as recently as two weeks ago.
A spokesperson for Health Minister Sylvia Jones now says that seven people have actually been fined, but that the ministry was not aware of those cases.
If a fine is issued, a care co-ordinator at a hospital is required to report that to Home and Community Care Support Services, which is then required to report that information to Ontario Health, Hannah Jensen wrote in a statement.
"Ontario Health and Ontario Health Regional Officer should have been reporting these instances of charges to the Ministry of Health as well as the Ministry of Long-Term Care," she wrote. "This last step was not being completed."
Jensen was not immediately able to say when each of those people were fined, if any of them are still being charged $400 daily, or the total amount of their fines.
Barrie's News Delivered To Your Inbox
By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: Central Ontario Broadcasting, 431 Huronia Rd, Barrie, Ontario, CA, https://www.cobroadcasting.com. You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact
NDP Leader Marit Stiles called the explanation a "flimsy" excuse.
"Ontarians aren’t buying it," she wrote in a statement. "More vulnerable people will be put in this situation if the government doesn’t get rid of a law that we in the NDP, experts and families have been telling them is flat-out cruel."
The revelation that fines have been issued comes shortly after The Canadian Press reported that nearly 300 patients had been moved to long-term care homes not of their choosing. The law, known as Bill 7, can see those patients placed in homes up to 70 kilometres away — or 150 kilometres if they are in northern Ontario — without their consent.
Those 293 people ultimately moved to a long-term care home they did not consent to be in, but the seven people who were fined would have refused to leave the hospital.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 3, 2024.
Banner image via The Canadian Press- Alex Lupul
