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“Ford can and should end this right now by immediately repealing Bill 7, before more people are torn away from their loved ones,” they said. “Instead of bullying frail elderly people, Doug Ford should address the hospital crisis that he has allowed to get worse. We need to repeal wage-capping Bill 124 and ensure hospitals are fully staffed and fully funded.”
NDP critics call on Ford to repeal bill that forces seniors into long-term care
Posted: November 23, 2022
(November 22, 2022)
By: North Bay Nugget
Ontario NDP critics are calling on premier Doug Ford’s Bill 7, which forces seniors into long-term care facilities far from home against their wishes. PHOTO BY STOCK PHOTO /Getty Images
Ontario NDP critics are calling on premier Doug Ford’s Bill 7, which forces seniors into long-term care facilities far from home against their wishes.
Introduced in August, the Ford government’s “More Beds Better Care Act” allows hospitals to transfer hospital patients to temporary long-term care homes while they wait for a hospital bed. Those facilities can be as far away as 70 kilometres in southern Ontario, and 150 kilometres away in northern regions.
On Sunday, fines were introduced that would force patients to pay $400 dollars per day if they refused a transfer.
Nickel Belt MPP and NDP health critic France Gelinas released a joint statement Monday with NDP long-term care critic Wayne Gates, following the news that the Ontario Health Coalition will be launching a constitutional challenge to the bill.
“Ford’s Bill 7 legislation leaves anyone unable to pay these exorbitant fines vulnerable to being forced out of their communities, and facing separation from their families and spouses,” they said in the statement. “Families’ devastating separation will do nothing to alleviate the staffing crisis in our hospitals — it will only cause senseless pain and suffering.”
