TORONTO — A new Ontario law that allows hospitals to fine discharged patients $400 a day if they do not move into a nursing home not of their choosing violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, advocates allege in a lawsuit filed Wednesday.
The Ontario Health Coalition and the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly said the new law, the More Beds, Better Care Act, also known as Bill 7, strips away several rights of older patients.
“Bill 7 singles out a particular cohort of older, ill and very vulnerable patients to be deprived of their right to informed consent about where they will live and the health care they receive,” the organizations said in the suit.