Patients needing long-term care in Montreal are spending months in transition wards in hospitals because of a shortage of beds.
Doctors say the chronic-care patients are clogging hospitals and using up resources that are already in short supply, The Montreal Gazette said Friday.
The government says it plans to increase the amount of money that goes toward home care instead of adding more chronic-care beds.
Isabelle Merizzi, press attache to Quebec Health Minister Philippe Couillard, said elderly people don't necessarily want to be in chronic-care facility.
"They prefer to stay at home, supported with home care," she told the newspaper.
Copyright 2007 by United Press International
