Son says long-term care changes could help father's situation

One Windsor-Essex man is hopeful that the province's changes to how people move from the hospital into long-term care could see his parents reunited sooner.

Paul Britton's father, also named Paul Britton, is at Windsor Regional Hospital awaiting a long-term care bed.

The elder Britton, who is in his 70s, was staying in Windsor prior to being admitted, but wants to join his wife at a facility at home in Durham region.

"I think it will benefit us just because my dad's goal is to go back to Oshawa," his son said.

Last week, the Ontario government proposed new legislation that would let hospitals send patients awaiting a bed in their preferred long-term care home to to be placed in a "temporary" home after staff make "reasonable efforts to obtain the patient's consent."

The move was announced as part of a plan to ease the strain on hospitals.

Last week, Windsor Regional Hospital said 31 people were using acute care beds while waiting for a spot to open in their preferred long-term care home.

Britton said under the old rules, accepting a spot at a facility that's not his preferred location would mean his dad would face a much longer wait to get to where he wants to be. 

"He's on the list for a home, but he only chose one, which is where my mother is trying to get back with her," he said. "And the situation is if he chooses more than one and he goes to say number five on his list, he loses his crisis level. So he goes to the bottom of the list to get to his number one choice, where my mother is."

Britton said although the changes could help in his father's situation, it may not be ideal for everyone and acknowledges the criticism the proposed legislation has prompted.

Critics have argued the changes violate patient rights.

Dr. Samir Sinha, the National Institute on Ageing's director of health policy research, says this legislation will impact hospitals and their ability to provide high-quality care to elderly patients.

"I fear that this is going to make it hard for people to want to even access hospital care when they know that the risk is that they might actually be forced to actually go to a home they never, ever wanted to end up in," said Sinha, who is also the director of geriatrics at Mount Sinai and the University Health Network in Toronto.

Paul Calandra, the minister responsible for long-term care in Ontario, said last week that no patient would be forced to leave the hospital.