Liam Casey, The Canadian Press
Revealed Thursday, Could 9, 2024 2:36PM EDT
Final Up to date Thursday, Could 9, 2024 3:53PM EDT
A southwestern Ontario girl has acquired an $8,400 invoice from a hospital in Windsor, Ont., after she refused to place her mom in a nursing house she hated – and she or he says she has no intention of paying it.
Michele Campeau and her 83-year-old mom, Ruth Poupard, are caught up in a comparatively new legislation that permits hospitals to position discharged sufferers into nursing properties not of their selecting with the intention to release beds. If sufferers refuse to maneuver, they face a nice of $400 per day as they continue to be on the hospital.
The invoice got here from Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, the place Campeau’s mom stays, with directions to pay on the cashier’s workplace or by cellphone or on-line. The hospital charged the household for 21 days in March.
“I am by no means paying it as a result of the legislation is fallacious,” Campeau mentioned. “It is unfair what they’re attempting to do to seniors.”
Campeau is anticipating a fair greater invoice to land within the coming weeks to account for all of the day by day fines which have racked up for April.
“We’re anticipating one other invoice for $12,000 quickly,” she mentioned.
On Thursday afternoon, Campeau came upon her mother was accepted into the nursing house that was her best choice. She is about to maneuver subsequent week.
“Then we’ll get one other invoice for $6,000 for Could,” she mentioned.
The legislation that permits hospitals to concern such fines – referred to as the Extra Beds, Higher Care Act, or Invoice 7 – was handed by the Doug Ford authorities within the fall of 2022 in an effort to open up much-needed hospital area.
It’s geared toward so-called alternate stage of care sufferers who’re discharged from hospital, however want a long-term care mattress and do not have one but.
Hospitals can ship sufferers to nursing properties not of their selecting as much as 70 kilometres away, or as much as 150 kilometres away in northern Ontario, if areas open up there first.
Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare mentioned it can’t touch upon Poupard’s case resulting from affected person confidentiality.
The previous few years have been robust for Poupard. Dementia set in, she underwent a coronary heart valve transplant and survived most cancers. She moved in together with her daughter, who took care of her and have become her energy of lawyer.
Poupard’s most up-to-date health-care journey started shortly after Christmas when she hallucinated in the course of the night time, fell and broke her hip. Campeau rushed her to hospital, the place she had surgical procedure. As a part of her restoration, Poupard moved to Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare for rehabilitation.
By Feb. 21, Poupard recovered to a degree the place her doctor decided she now not wanted the hospital’s specialised care and discharged her.
Campeau and her brother determined that they alone wouldn’t have the ability to handle their mom’s wants if she returned to reside in her daughter’s house.
So the household labored with a placement co-ordinator on the hospital and put 5 long-term care properties on Poupard’s record. However these have been full. Discussions about including extra nursing properties to Poupard’s record then started, below the provisions of the brand new legislation.
Campeau agreed to place extra nursing properties on her mom’s record and the co-ordinator added properties till one which had a spot out there got here up. Campeau then had 24 hours to go to the nursing house and decide.
If she refused to maneuver her mother into that long-term care house in downtown Windsor, the hospital mentioned they’d start charging her $400 a day. Campeau mentioned she visited the house and located it “disgusting,” refusing to position her mom there.
A number of weeks later, the primary invoice landed.
The hospital additionally charged Poupard a co-pay fee – the speed she would pay in a long-term care house – of $653.20 for 10 days in March earlier than she refused the transfer into that one nursing house.
“I paid it like I did the one in February, which I am very happy to do,” Campeau mentioned of the co-pay. “However I am not paying $400 a day as a result of I did not associate with their plan to place her in a disgusting house.”
The province mentioned it believes solely seven folks have been fined below the legislation and that hospitals are accountable for the administration of fines. Well being Minister Sylvia Jones mentioned the federal government can’t disclose how a lot these sufferers have been charged resulting from affected person confidentiality.
Liberal parliamentary chief John Fraser mentioned he helps Poupard and Campeau’s refusal to pay the invoice.
“It is the proper factor to do,” he mentioned. “I feel that the minister ought to intervene and attempt to discover a resolution.”
The household additionally has the assist of the NDP.
“It is a tragedy,” mentioned NDP Chief Marit Stiles.
Stiles mentioned she can be fearful about all of the sufferers who’ve already been moved to nursing properties not of their selecting.
“I am listening to more and more about susceptible folks having to go away their communities to go distant to search out long-term care beds,” she mentioned. “It is unhappy.”
Some 300 sufferers have been moved into new properties not of their selecting.
Campeau is now in limbo, unclear on what is going to occur together with her unpaid invoice.
“I don’t know what occurs subsequent,” she mentioned. “I actually simply need my mother in an honest spot, that is all.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Could 9, 2024.
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