Ontario Health Coalition is taking a 10-foot tall rocking chair on tour to raise awareness about levels of care and access to care in Ontario’s nursing homes.
The chair in Oshawa, Ont.
The “Rock-in” tour will go to 27 communities over the next two weeks, with a press conference held at each stop. The aim is to collect 20,000 signatures on postcards to symbolize the 20,000 people waiting for long-term care placements in the province.
“The goal is to raise the profile of the issue during the provincial election campaign and hopefully win some promises from the political parties to address the long-standing problems in the long-term care sector,” said Natalie Mehra, executive director at Ontario Health Coalition, a network of more than 400 grassroots community organizations.
The Ontario Health Coalition has identified two key issues: first, there aren’t enough long-term beds and secondly, as patients have been discharged from hospitals “quicker and sicker,” the level of care in long-term care homes has not improved to meet patients’ needs.
“We want to provide an organized way for our members to do something concrete and put some pressure on about this issue,” said Mehra. “Then we’re going to organize an event at Queen’s Park where we’ll deliver 20,000 postcards to the new government.”
