QUEEN’S PARK – Since it was announced last month, advocates against Bill 7, the More Beds, Better Care Act, have put the bill under the microscope and found many flaws in what the Ontario government is proposing.
In an effect to free up hospital beds and reduce wait times, the Ontario Government is giving physicians the power to decide the fate of seniors in need of long-term care.
According to Bill 7, “this new provision authorizes certain actions to be carried out without the consent of these patients. The actions include having a placement co-coordinator determine the patient’s eligibility for a long-term care home, select a home and authorize their admission to the home.”
In other words, under Bill-7, seniors will lose the human right to choose what type of care best suits them by forcing them into Long-term Care Homes without their consent.
In a statement made by NDP Duty leader and MPP for Kiiwetinoong Sol Mamakwa, Mamakwa points outs that if Bill-7 is passed, the Bill can result in re-traumatizing elders who early in their life were forced into Residential School institutions.
“Bill 7 could impact elders like Garnet Angeconeb, an Indian Residential School survivor who is in hospital as an Alternate Level of Care patient,” said Mamakwa. “He’s being forced to relive his trauma now at the end of his life as he is put at risk of being institutionalized by Bill 7.”
During the Question Period at Queens Park, Paul A Calandra, Minister of Legislative Affairs, responded to Mamakwa’s question. “What the bill proposes is pretty clear,” said Calandra. “What the Bill actually does is provide a better quality of care. The right care in the right place at the right time. I think we would all agree for our seniors that they deserve the best quality of care possible. That is why, in particular, when he (Mamakwa) talks about the north, we have made so many investments in long-term care in the north. Because we want to ensure that the discrepancy that has existed for far too long between north, south, urban, rural are longer part of the fabric of the Ontario health care system.”
Mamakwa calls on the Ontario Government to cancel Bill 7 and instead address the health care crisis with a more improved equitable solution.
Mamakwa states,” Mr. Speaker we need clear expectations in Bill like these around rural and northern equity. In Sioux Lookout and Red Lake, the hospital has high numbers of alternate levels of care. The answer isn’t shipping Elders to Southern Ontario without their consent. What is this government doing to ensure that Bill 7 has real accountability so that rural and northern equity is not forgotten?”
Calandra’s rebuttal doesn’t address Mamakwa’s concerns over re-institutionalizing elder Residential School Survivors but instead reaffirms that Bill -7 ensures that all seniors will get a better quality of care.
