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.
One of the problems with this law is that it can strip people of their advocates. If someone is placed in a care facility 150km away from home, that means a three-hour round trip for anyone who wants to visit . . . assuming that person has a car and a driver’s license and the weather and roads are good.
Let’s say you live in Cochrane, don’t drive, and your loved one has been placed in a home in Kapuskasing, which should be ~130km. If you want to travel to see them, your only public transit option at the moment is an Ontario Northland bus that runs three times a week. Incidentally, you’ll arrive in Kap just after 1:30AM and will be stuck there until the bus back comes through just before 6:00AM the next day (assuming it is the next day and not the day after—the schedule’s difficult to interpret). Kind of difficult to advocate for someone when visiting them is a two-day expedition, and they may no longer be in any condition to explain what’s wrong over the phone.
I understand wanting to clear the hospital beds, but this is something that needed a lot more thought, especially when dealing with conditions in the north.