StratfordToday received the following Letter to the Editor in response to our article 'Hundreds of hospital patients moved to nursing homes they didn't choose'
Why can you (along with most media) tell both sides of this story.
- Stratford Hospital (along with most hospitals in Ontario) does not have enough beds to take care of the really ill, let alone have seniors who need nursing home care, staying months in the hospital. Do you not remember how we used to have 2 whole sections of SGH that had seniors.
- Your headline "Hundreds" in actual fact the figure was just under 300 compared to over 30,000 seniors waiting for a nursing home bed which was not even mentioned in your article.
- The Ontario government patted itself on the back a few years ago about the funding they were giving out for more nursing homes beds and expansions. Just how many new completed LICENSED beds has this area have today compared to 5 years ago. Look around Stratford and area, look up which Nursing homes were allotted money to expand and how many actually have done the expansion. And what has happened to the costs of these expansions?
I agree it is terrible to move someone away from an area where people can not drop in for a visit. Remember, these are seniors who only have visiting family and friends left out of their previous active lives.
The Ontario Government needs to issue new LICENSED beds for both nursing homes and hospitals. The Ontario Government needs to support and remove all the additional bureaucracy required to build new hospitals and nursing homes. Until that happens, seniors care will never get any better and media needs to report both sides of this story.
Patricia Willows
