A Toronto hospital has issued an apology to a family for threatening a $1,300-a-day bill unless their ailing elderly mother moved to a long-term care facility.
Toronto East General Hospital said "the letter should not have been issued," hours after NDP Leader Andrea Horwath accused the hospital of "blackmail," CTV's Paul Bliss reported.
The NDP leader held a news conference Monday morning at Queen's Park with Carol McMurray, the Toronto woman who had received a letter from a Toronto East General Hospital saying her mother would be charged $1,300 a day until she was moved to a long-term care bed.
McMurray's mother, 84-year-old Ruth Woodside, had a stroke and needs a tube for feeding.
The hospital had asked McMurray to fill out a form to list three long-term care homes for her mother.
However, only two of those choices are close enough for McMurray and her sister to visit on the TTC, so she has refused to fill out the form.
The hospital letter said she had three choices; list three choices on the form, take her mother home, or pay the $1,300-a-day charge.
"That's bullying," McMurray, who broke down during the news conference, said. "I was appalled . . . the choices in the letter are outrageous."
Horwath called on Health Minister Deb Matthews, who had previously ordered hospitals to stop threatening elderly patients with high costs unless they move to a long-term facility, to intervene.
"The thing that's most disturbing once again is that patients are being blackmailed," Horwath said.
"I'm asking Minister Matthews to be true to her word."
