Hospital patients being shifted ahead of G20 to open up beds

Patients are being discharged or moved to nursing homes and rehabilitation centres in an effort to open beds in the lead-up to the G20 summit next week.

Stacey Daub, senior director of client services at the Community Care Access Centre, said there is a concerted effort to “create trauma capacity in the hospitals” before the summit begins.

“During this period of time there are clients who are being identified as priority to actually move from hospital so they can create capacity and hospital beds in the system,” she said. “We’re trying to move more people home, more people into rehab. We’re trying to fast-track people who don’t need to be in hospital.”

But this may be creating headaches for people outside the hospital system.

Evelyn Bastien said her husband’s aunt, Bev Keating, was first on the waiting list for a spot in a long-term care facility. But the family was recently told Ms. Keating had been bumped down to No. 5 because of the G20.

“They said it was because of the G20 and that anyone who was moving from hospital got priority,” Ms. Bastien said.

Ms. Daub confirmed that hospital patients can be classified 1A, which means they are given priority access to long-term care, but said it shouldn’t affect other people on the waiting lists.

“I don’t know if anyone specifically has been bumped,” she said. “But leading up to the G20 there is planning across all the health-service providers in Toronto to try and maximize in-patient and trauma capacity in the hospitals.”

She said such moves are often made before large events, enabling the health-care system to respond to a “catastrophic incident” should one arise.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/g8-g20/news/hospital-patients-being-shifted-ahead-of-g20-to-open-up-beds/article1605673/