Advocates for Long-Term Care Reform in Ontario
The right of a substitute decision maker to consent or not consent to the transfer of a patient to the long term care home is removed.
The Health Care Consent Act 1996 provides:
“47 (1) Despite any law to the contrary, if a person is found by an evaluator to be incapable with respect to his or her admission to a care facility, the person’s admission may be authorized, and the person may be admitted, without consent, if in the opinion of the person responsible for authorizing admissions to the care facility,
(a) the incapable person requires immediate admission to a care facility as a result of a crisis; and
(b) it is not reasonably possible to obtain an immediate consent or refusal on the incapable person’s behalf. 1996, c. 2, Sched. A, s. 47 (1).
CONSENT OR REFUSAL TO BE OBTAINED
(2) When an admission to a care facility is authorized under subsection (1), the person responsible for authorizing admissions to the care facility shall obtain consent, or refusal of consent, from the incapable person’s substitute decision-maker promptly after the person’s admission. 2007, c. 8, s. 207 (9).
The More Beds, Better Care Act introduced on August 18, 2022, adds this subsection to the Health Care Consent Act to remove the right of the patient or the substitute decision maker to consent:
“(3) Subsections (1) and (2) do not apply to an authorization by a placement co-ordinator of an ALC patient’s admission to a long-term care home in accordance with section 60.1 of the Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021.”
There have been significant changes to the Long-Term Care Act that, regardless of what politicians say about it in the media, has significant impact on those currently in hospitals waiting for a safe Long Term Care room. The changes essentially give the government and hospitals the legal ability to send a patient waiting for a long-term care placement to ANY home that the government wishes with no say by the patient or patients caregivers and family. The homes that have rooms available are homes that NO ONE wants to go to because of their reputation for bad care.
For a very good presentation on the dreadful impact on patients/family/friends please go to:
https://www.facebook.com/ontariohealth/videos/809027796766485
Video of Press Conference held by the non profit organization, Ontario Health Coalition criticizing the legislation entitled More Beds, Better Care Act introduced by the Ford Conservatives on August 18, 2022. The second speaker is the solicitor for the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly (ACE) explaining the issues involved with this legislation.
Ontario Health Coalition was live.
Pushing Elderly Patients into Long-Term Care Homes Not of their Choice a Violation of Fundamental Rights
Leading advocates for elderly patients will respond to the Ford government’s announcement about moving hospital patients into long-term care facilities that are not of their choice.