Lanark County Council is backing a push for emergency room reform in Ontario, endorsing a motion from the Western Ontario Wardens’ Caucus supporting Finlay’s Law.
Finlay’s Law is named in memory of 16-year-old Finlay van der Werken, who died after waiting more than eight hours in an Oakville emergency room without being seen by a physician. He died from pneumonia that progressed to sepsis.
The motion points to growing strain on Ontario’s health-care system, including rising emergency room volumes, increasingly complex patient needs and worsening wait times for urgent care and hospital admissions.
It also highlights staffing shortages as a major factor affecting timely care, alongside funding shortfalls that municipalities say are making it harder to maintain existing health services.
Council heard that overcrowding remains a major concern, with alternate level of care patients continuing to occupy acute-care hospital beds while waiting for long-term care placements. About 40 per cent of those patients are waiting specifically for long-term care beds.
The motion cites Canadian emergency medicine research suggesting between 8,000 and 15,000 people die prematurely each year due to emergency room overcrowding.
Through Finlay’s Law, the caucus is calling on Ontario’s Ministry of Health to take immediate action to reduce emergency wait times, including enhanced triage protocols and increased health-care funding.
The proposal would also seek legislated protections for children under 18, including limits on emergency room wait times, safer pediatric nurse- and physician-to-patient ratios, stronger oversight and enforcement, mandatory reviews of pediatric deaths occurring in ER waiting rooms and additional funding to improve pediatric emergency readiness.
The motion also urges the federal government to ensure Ontario complies with the principles of the Canada Health Act through health funding transfers, including stronger monitoring of sepsis care.
The motion will now be circulated broadly to provincial and federal officials and health-care stakeholders.
