BELLEVILLE, Ont. - Ontario hospitals should not add to the stress of elderly patients by threatening them with fees of hundreds of dollars a day to try to force them into a nursing home, Premier Dalton McGuinty said Friday.

"We're talking about patients and families who are under a great deal of stress," said McGuinty.

"The last thing we want to do is provide them with information that is not accurate, that adds to their levels of stress."

Elderly hospital patients who should be in a nursing home cause backlogs throughout the system, leaving other people stuck in the emergency department because there are no beds to admit them.

The NDP complained this week about an elderly Toronto patient who was threatened with $1,800-a-day fees, and about a Windsor hospital that charged $600 a day if patients refused to take the first open bed in a nursing home.

Another family in Cambridge had to hire a lawyer to fight the $871 daily fee the local hospital was trying to levy against them, said New Democrat health critic France Gelinas.

"There are countless other families who did not receive legal advice or representation, and they paid these fees in order to protect their loved ones because they felt they had no choice," said Gelinas.

Hospitals can charge people a maximum of $53.23 a day while patients are waiting to get into a home, and anything above that is not allowed, said McGuinty.

"It's unacceptable and we won't stand for it," said the premier.

"I believe we've heard in each and every instance where a hospital has been called on this that they have acknowledged the error of their ways and undertaken to put in place policies to ensure it's not repeated."

After a speech in Belleville, McGuinty made it clear the Liberals don't want to hear any more stories about patients being hit with huge fees by hospitals if they won't immediately move to a nursing home.

"I'll take the opportunity myself to send a message to management in all Ontario hospitals: we have rules in place and you've got to respect those rules."

The Liberals are trying to show they're fixing a problem they had ignored for years, allowing the hospitals to charge fees in an attempt to force people out of beds, said Gelinas.

"This practice has been out in the open and the McGuinty Liberals have simply turned a blind eye to this despicable policy," she said.

"Why for so many years did the minister stand by and allow hospitals to threaten to charge distraught families exorbitant amounts of money?"

Health Minister Deb Matthews said anyone who paid such fees should ask the hospital if it was a legitimate fee or not, noting there are times when hospitals can charge more than $53.23 a day.

"There is no reason why someone waiting for long-term care should be charged that fee," said Matthews.

"If someone is in a hospital and is discharged and ready to go home, then, yes, there are unregulated fees that are available."

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said families that are desperately trying to access the care they need are finding the system is in "complete shambles," and claimed patients are "being punished" for the government's failures.