Ontario seniors financially coerced?

Hamilton seniors are being strong-armed into long-term care homesthey didn’t choose by hospitals desperate to get them out of their beds.  Localhospitals threaten to charge seniors $300 a day if they don’t take thefirst available long-term care bed in the city no matter how far it isfrom their family, or what families think of the home. “I don’tlike it,” said John Tory, leader of Ontario’s Progressive ConservativeParty. “To me that is a complete admission of defeat if we’rethreatening elderly, infirm people with a huge cost per day becausethey won’t accept being shipped somewhere … How did this become theright way to operate?”  The issue is far from black and white.Hamilton’s most popular long-term care homes have waits of up to threeyears. By contrast, many of the older homes that families are lesslikely to pick have waits as short as two months.  With at least120 seniors clogging up hospital beds and 70 more waiting in atemporary unit at St. Joseph’s Villa in Dundas, hospitals can’t affordto let patients wait around for their top picks.

Read more in the Hamilton (Ontario) Spectator, http://tinyurl.com/2wzx7n