Midwestern

CUPE calls for reversal of Ford's plan to move disabled and elderly people from hospitals to LTC homes

CUPE is calling for the Ford government to reverse a controversial decision to start moving elderly people and those with disabilities from hospitals to long-term care homes.

In a release, CUPE says that emergency rooms and intensive care units are shutting down province wide because of inadequate staffing, not because of "the inability to coerce patients out of hospital and into long-term care.” The President of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, Michael Hurley, is quoted as saying Ford's recently announced Bill 7 will "not do anything to fix our health crisis." CUPE and the OCHU are calling on Ford and his government to immediately reverse the bill, stating it will only make the current healthcare landscape worse, not better.

CUPE represents over 90,000 healthcare workers in Ontario, and they want the bill reversed and for Ford and his government to "listen to Ontarians and make a plan to address the healthcare crisis by repealing wage restraint legislation, raising wages, and making significant investments."

“ER and ICU closures, and backlogs of surgeries, are happening because of a snowballing staffing shortage, not because of the inability to coerce patients out of hospital and into long-term care,” says Michael Hurley, President of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU). “Ford’s Bill 7 won’t do anything to fix our health crisis. In reality, it just furthers the Ford Conservative’s plan to privatize healthcare, by forcing seniors and other patients into the empty beds in private long term care facilities. Beds that are empty because no one wants to go to these facilities after seeing thousands of tragic deaths in these same private homes during the pandemic. What’s even worse is that he is denying the right of patients to appeal this decision and is fast tracking this legislation, hoping that people don’t notice and don’t fight back.”

“This proposed legislation wrongly blames the most vulnerable people for a healthcare crisis that’s not their fault and forces them into long-term care, potentially hundreds of kilometers outside their communities, away from their families and friends, and under threat of incredibly costly charges,” adds Debra Maxfield, a personal support worker and Chair of CUPE Ontario’s Health Care Workers’ Coordinating Committee. “There absolutely is a staffing crisis in health care in this province, but this won’t do a thing to address it.”

“We should never be scapegoating elders and people with disabilities for anything going wrong due to systemic underinvestment,” says Fred Hahn, President of CUPE Ontario. “What we need to do immediately is ensure significant and historic investments in the province’s overburdened and understaffed hospitals, home care, rehabilitative care, and LTC homes.”

Premier Doug Ford was asked about Bill 7 and the controversy surrounding it at a transit announcement in Niagara on August 26th. Ford was asked why his government is bypassing public hearings regarding the bill, which is set for third reading very soon.

"Well we always go out for communications and talk to stakeholders right across the board, but we need to move forward on this, and we're gonna get it done. But our offices are always open for people to come down, discuss any issues they might have, be it myself or the ministers, but we're always willing to sit down and listen to people."

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