May 6th, 2021

Patient received $250,000 bill for care after being discharged from hospital

QUEEN’S PARK – A Hamilton-area man has gotten a bill for nearly a quarter of a million dollars for his care after he was moved from the hospital to an Alternative Level Care Ward in an LTC home while waiting for a proper long-term care home placement. NDP MPP Sandy Shaw questioned the Ford government Thursday about how they could allow this to happen.

Shaw’s constituent Jon was in hospital recovering from his second leg amputation. With no room in long-term care homes near him, he was moved to an Alternative Level Care Ward in an LTC home — and left there for a year, without proper care, and they’ve been billing him a hospital daily rate of $1,034 per day the whole time.

“When the minister gave the edict to clear patients out to create room for COVID patients, Jon was sent to an Alternate Level of Care (ALC) wing in a long-term-care home. He’s been stuck there since August 2020, and he is being billed $1,034 a day. He owes $241,956 to be exact,” said Shaw. “He’s not even getting the level of care he needs. It’s like he’s been forgotten by everyone but the accounting department.

“Can Ministers Christine Elliott and Merrilee Fullerton explain how they can allow this to happen to Jon, and others who are waiting for long-term-care beds in the province of Ontario?”

Last week the provincial Auditor’s Special Report on Pandemic Readiness and Response in Long-Term Care highlighted a province-wide failure to support ALC patients by this government.