Controversial law designed to free up hospital beds to be tested in Ontario court
CTV
A new charter challenge set to get underway on Monday will test the constitutionality of a controversial Ontario law that allows hospitals to place discharged patients into long-term care homes not of their choosing or face a $400-per-day charge if they refuse.
A new charter challenge set to get underway on Monday will test the constitutionality of a controversial Ontario law that allows hospitals to place discharged patients into long-term care homes not of their choosing or face a $400-per-day charge if they refuse.
The Advocacy Centre for the Elderly and the Ontario Health Coalition argues the law, known as the More Bed Better Care Act or Bill 7, violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The province disagrees.
One core item the court will address is whether the new law has fulfilled its purpose by improving the flow of patients. Documents filed with court reveal the two sides have reached different conclusions on that question.
Premier Doug Ford's government rammed Bill 7 through the legislature within days in September 2022, bypassing public hearings.
The law allows hospital placement coordinators to choose a nursing home for a patient who has been deemed by a doctor as requiring an "alternate level of care," or ALC, without consent.
They can also share the patient's health information to such homes without consent. Patients can also be sent to nursing homes up to 70 kilometres from their preferred spot in southern Ontario and up to 150 kilometres away in northern Ontario. The law sparked outrage among seniors.
