A Toronto woman said she is facing “quite a hardship” after a hospital stopped covering the cost of a frequent but short ambulance trip for her 56-year-old husband who suffers from multiple sclerosis.

Speaking with CTV News Toronto, Beth James said her husband Rob James has been living at Humber Valley Terrace Long Term Care home for the past two and a half years and in that time he has been in and out of Etobicoke General Hospital.

Rob James has suffered from various bladder infections that require him to be treated in a hospital frequently, which is about a 300 metre trip by ambulance.

The hospital used to cover the cost of the ambulance trip, but suddenly the couple received a phone call on Monday saying they will be no longer be subsidizing this action.

To get him back to the nursing home from the hospital, his wife has been told by staff that she will now have to arrange transportation for him to go back at her own expense. If she chooses to take an ambulance for the short trip, it could cost her more than $200 per trip. As an alternative, she can push him in his wheelchair across the parking lot of the hospital to his nursing home, which takes about 10 minutes.

Beth James said she can’t afford the 13 or so trips per year.

“It’s quite a hardship,” Beth James said. “I have a very understanding employer which helps immeasurably but I can’t keep doing this to them either.”

“It’s very demeaning and it’s putting me as a working person in a tough situation where I have to make some tough choices.”

She said she also has other expenses to consider when it comes to taking care of her husband that are not covered under OHIP.

A statement from the ministry of health written to CTV News Toronto on Friday said that hospitals do have the ability to waive the funds required for ambulance support.

She added now that the winter months are here it’ll be hard for her to keep this up and worries about her husband’s health.

“I’ll have to bundle him up and keep doing this,” she said. “Quite frankly it’s very difficult.”

Her husband said he wishes he could do something to help.

“I’m disappointed. It’s really tough for my wife. She has to put up with a lot of garbage,” Rob said.