A nurse is silhouetted behind a glass panel as she tends to a patient in the Intensive Care Unit at an Ontario hospital, on Tuesday, January 25, 2022. Photo via The Canadian Press
An Ontario court has ruled against a legal challenge to a law that permits hospitals to transfer patients to nursing homes without their consent, charging $400 per day for those who refuse the move. The controversial Ontario hospital bed law, known as Bill 7, was introduced in late 2022 to address hospital bed shortages by placing patients deemed to require "alternate level of care" (ALC) in available nursing homes, even if they did not choose those facilities.
Superior Court Justice Robert Centa dismissed the challenge, stating that the law helps free up hospital beds for those in need of acute care. He asserted that the legislation is not coercive and does not infringe on patients' dignity, autonomy, or liberty. The ruling came after the Ontario Health Coalition and the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly filed a legal challenge, claiming that the law had failed to achieve its objectives. They pointed to government data showing that the number of ALC patients continued to rise even after the law’s implementation.
However, Justice Centa disagreed with this assessment. He emphasized that Bill 7 serves a vital purpose in reducing hospital congestion, thereby making more beds available for patients requiring hospital-level care. According to Centa, any restrictions placed on ALC patients’ rights were appropriately aligned with the goal of hospital bed optimization. He noted that the legislative measures were a reasonable and proportionate way to achieve this outcome.
Under Bill 7, patients who need long-term care but are not immediately admitted to their preferred nursing homes may be placed in facilities up to 70 kilometers away in southern Ontario, or up to 150 kilometers in the northern part of the province. The Ontario government maintains that this placement is a temporary solution, with patients being moved to their preferred nursing homes once space becomes available.
While the law has sparked considerable backlash from seniors’ advocacy groups, the court’s decision marks a significant win for the government’s efforts to address ongoing pressures in the healthcare system, particularly the strain on hospital capacity.
