Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday August 27, 2022
Not the new and improved Doug Ford …
August 19, 2022
At minimum, the provincial government has a massive optics and communication problem around its new initiative to try and free up badly needed acute care beds.
By now we all know the health-care crisis is real. And a significant part of the situation is a result of people who need alternate levels of care occupying acute care beds. Give Doug Ford and friends credit for finally trying to do something about it.
But is what they’re doing the right thing?
January 27, 2021
New legislation would allow hospital patients to be transferred to a temporary long-term care home without their consent while they await a bed in their preferred facility. The interim LTC facility would not necessarily be in their community. The law will not physically force patients to move, but it’s not at all clear what will happen if they don’t.
LTC Minister Paul Calandra says people should “absolutely” be charged a fee if they won’t move, but he won’t say how much. It could be $62 per day, or it could be much more. How much more? How far away might people be moved? The government either doesn’t know or isn’t saying, and it is not allowing debate or public input into the new law. This is not the new and consultation-friendly Doug Ford people thought they were voting for. (Hamilton Spectator editorial)