Hospital officials are reacting to the news of the implementation of Bill 7 in Ontario.
On Wednesday, the Government of Ontario announced that as of September 21 the legislation will take effect that will require patients to move to an available long-term care bed while they wait for a bed of their preferred choice.
The long-term care bed cannot be more than 70 kilometres away from their bed of choice.
Starting on November 20, if a patient refuses to leave the bed they currently occupy in the hospital to an available bed they will be charged $400 a day for staying in the hospital.
David Musyj, President and CEO of Windsor Regional Hospital, says as of today, WRH has 33 patients who could be moved to long-term care homes. Combined they have been in the hospital for 913 days.
He says there is approximately 3,910 people on the surgical wait list, who have been waiting for beds to be available to continue on with surgeries.
"The goal right now is to, if we can move some of these 30 if not all of the 30 and create 30 extra beds, that at least right now moves the patients from the Emergency Department into these beds and starts to create a flow and avoids cancellations of surgeries."
Kristin Kennedy, Chief Executive Officer of Erie Shores HealthCare, says this legislation will help with busy emergency rooms.
"This legislation will be pivotal to timely access for patients in our communities. We are averaging 10 to 12 admit-no beds in our ER so patients are waiting for an in-patient bed of a 17 bed ER."
Dr. Wassim Saad, Chief of Staff at Windsor Regional Hospital, says why this legislation is beneficial for everyone involved.
"We are going to be able to look after more patients as a result of this and have better flow through the system. And ALC patients do better in an environment where they are going to be able to have that social support and social simulation that an acute care hospital simply cannot provide."
Currently, there are close to 30 patients in the Emergency Department at WRH who are waiting for an acute care bed.
Musyj says homes are starting to reopen some beds that were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He says once those beds are opened that more staff will eventually be hired to help support the new patients.