Hospital overcrowding may be addressed soon
Health minister pledges help to ease overcapacity issues, while NDP remains skeptical
More help is coming to ease hospital overcrowding, Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins pledged Monday as the NDP released figures showing some local health-care facilities operating at over100-per-cent capacity.
“We are approaching flu season, and we are taking every step possible,” Hoskins told reporters, suggesting that measures, such as reopening the closed Finch Ave. site of the Humber River hospital, will be announced soon.
That proposal would create 150 beds for patients who are in Torontoarea acute-care hospitals but no longer require that high level of care, such as people waiting for spaces in nursing homes or rehab centres.
“That’s one proposal of many that have come forward that . . . reflect the commitment we made in the (spring) budget to address this,” Hoskins added.
“We’re confident in the coming weeks and months that we’ll be able to take steps that will have significant impact.” NDP Leader Andrea Horwath was skeptical of the plan, charging in the legislature’s daily question period that “150 beds will not fix the mess this Liberal government has helped to create.”
“It is the new normal to hear horror stories of people waiting for days in emergency rooms and being treated . . . in hallways with no privacy and no dignity.”
Citing figures obtained under freedom-of-information legislation, Horwath said the Trillium hospital in Mississauga was operating at between103-per-cent and109-per-cent capacity between last January and May.
During the same period, figures were similar for Brampton Civic, while Etobicoke General was as high as 122-per-cent capacity, Horwath added.
Hoskins replied that some hospitals have been below capacity during the summer, but acknowledged “that doesn’t mean there aren’t pressures and there aren’t totally unacceptable instances where people are forced to wait too long.” He noted the government announced funding for 500 more beds for the Trillium system last May and has opened a new Humber River hospital, along with another new hospital in Milton among 35 that are being built or are planned across the province.
“I find it curious, if not bizarre, that Andrea Horwath would seemingly be opposed to the Humber River proposal, which would in fairly short order — certainly this calendar year — make available an additional 150 beds that could be used for nonacute patients.”
Hoskins confirmed last week that the government has asked hospitals in the province to come forward with “transitional care” plans like the one involving Humber’s mothballed Finch site.
“This is about the best care in the best place for the patient . . . that may in some instances be in a hospital,” he added.
“It may be in a different environment and so we’re not so caught up on where that might be as long as the quality of care is the highest and it’s appropriate for that individual and it gets them one step closer, hopefully, to returning home.”
Also under consideration are putting additional supports in retirement homes so residents can live there longer without having to move into nursing homes or hospitals, Hoskins said.
He described that option as “taking care to where the individual is.”