Advocates are moving forward with their legal fight against a controversial Ontario long-term care law that forces seniors out of hospital and into long-term care homes they did not choose.
The Ontario Health Coalition and the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly have filed a Notice of Application with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice challenging Bill 7. It alleges that the legislation, passed last August, violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms by overriding elderly patients’ fundamental rights to privacy and informed consent.
The law enables hospitals and placement coordinators from the Home and Community Care Support Services to share a patient’s personal health information with long-term care home operators without the patient’s consent. They can then coerce patients who are in hospital awaiting a long-term care placement to move to a residence they do not want to live in by charging $400 a day to stay in hospital. Patients in southern Ontario can be sent to nursing homes up to 70 kilometres away, while those in northern Ontario can be moved up to 150 kilometres from their preferred spot.
Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government opted not to collect public feedback on the bill by bypassing the committee phase, instead passing it immediately. It was not supported by any of the opposition parties.
The advocate groups argue that sending seniors to homes they did not choose that can be far away from family and friends can cause needless physical and psychological suffering and, in some cases, could hasten death.
“Bill 7 deprives these… patients of their right to life, liberty and security of the person under Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Moreover, by denying them their right to consent in respect of the medical care they will receive, or to appeal or seek review of the actions of hospital and provincial officials, these deprivations do not accord with the principles of fundamental justice required by Section 7,” the advocates said in a statement issued Thursday.
The lawsuit also alleges that by singling out elderly patients, the government is depriving them of their right to equality under Section 15 of the Charter which states every individual in Canada, regardless of race, religion, national or ethnic origin, colour, sex, age or physical or mental disability, is to be treated with the same respect, dignity, and consideration.
A request for comment from the Ontario Ministry of Long-Term Care had not been returned at the time of publication.
