According to the Patient Ombudsman’s annual report released on Tuesday, 3,306 complaints about the Ontario health system were received in the past fiscal year, particularly in Toronto and Northern Ontario.
This is a slight decrease from 3,595 cases in the previous fiscal year when Corona was rampant, but still a high number of complaints compared to 2,470 cases in the previous fiscal year.
More than 60% of the complaints received were complaints about public hospital services, 10% about long-term care homes in Ontario and the rest about other health facilities. According to the report, most of the complaints received were about poor access to treatment and lack of medical staff.
Among the patients and guardians surveyed, the number of respondents who responded that they were “treated with a lack of sensitivity and respect” increased by 43% from the previous year, and these complaints were particularly concentrated in the emergency room. Patients complained of frustration with long waiting times and poor communication about their complaints.
In addition, 98 complaints related to hospital security personnel were received, some of which claimed that “hospital security personnel used inappropriate and unsafe methods to restrain victims that could result in injury or death.” Most of the friction with the guards was focused on the emergency room and the mental health ward.
The Patient Ombudsman analyzed the reasons for the increase in complaints as a shortage of medical personnel, delays in regulations and services due to COVID-19, and fatigue and trauma from the epidemic.
Meanwhile, in the report, a case in which the family died in the emergency room after two days without being able to go up to the hospital room in a situation where the family could not enter together due to corona, a case in which a family member waiting for treatment from outside was not notified of death for several hours after death, and a case of hematuria. There were also cases of elderly people who had to wait for 9 hours to receive antibiotics after visiting the hospital because of the disease.