Long-Term Care Home Complaints in Ontario

All long-term care homes must be settings where residents feel safe and secure and have all of their needs met. If you have specific concerns about an Ontario Long-Term Care Home you may first want to discuss your concerns with the administrative staff of the home. There should be a document available and posted in the home detailing the process for filing a complaint within the home. If there is ANY concern about potential harm impacting residents of the home, it must be investigated right away. For other issues, there is an allowable timeline of 10 business days to respond and investigate. If the issue is not resolved to your satisfaction or you would prefer not to go directly to the home’s staff, you can call the Long-Term Care ACTION Line at (866) 434-0144. Should you go directly to the Ministry you will need to provide name and address information about the home and a full description of the issue, involved parties, where and when the incident occurred. You can send a complaint anonymously however, should you wish to know the result of your complaint, you would have to then provide contact information.

Depending on the gravity and nature of the complaint to the Ministry, an inspector may visit the home in question. In any event, the inspector will ensure that the home complies with the Long-Term Care Homes Act, 2007. If they are not complying he will complete an inspection report with problems detailed and an expectation that they will be fixed. Privacy of all residents and those who launch a complaint is respected. The legislation does protect those who complain and any residents involved from retaliation.

Inspection reports for all Ontario Long-Term Care Homes can be viewed online at publicreporting.ltchomes.net/en-ca/default.aspx 

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