Patient complaints on the rise in Ontario: ombudsman

A growing number of people are filing complaints to Ontario’s patient ombudsman office, which says it wrapped a record number of investigations last year including a case where a person was discharged by a hospital without being told they had cancer. The Patient Ombudsman’s annual report released Thursday says there were 4,886 new complaints filed between April 2024 and March 2025, a 10% increase over the year before. It also notes it resolved 4,863 complaints, some of which carry year-over-year. Among the issues highlighted in the report are that many patients don’t feel heard; the need to improve discharge protocols in emergency rooms; use of force for challenging behaviours; and a lack of trauma-informed obstetrical/gynecological care, which The Canadian Press reported on in June. “If you’re not communicating well in healthcare, then you are really setting yourself up for some problems,” says patient ombudsman Craig Thompson.He says complaints have been continuously rising since his office opened in 2016, which he attributes in part to an increase in public awareness. But Thompson also says it’s troubling to see that recommendations made in past reports have not been implemented in some cases.Close to 60% of the latest grievances were about hospitals, a slightly larger proportion than the year before. It also handles complaints about long-term care homes, home care, and community surgical and diagnostic centres. The office has the authority to conduct investigations and it says six were completed, resulting in 40 recommendations to the healthcare organizations to address systemic issues. The report details some of them:The report states a patient went to the emergency department with a fracture in August 2021 and underwent tests that indicated they had cancer. According to the investigation, a new family doctor saw the results a year later and communicated the diagnosis. The cancer had metastasized to the patient’s bones, causing “unrelenting pain.” The ombudsman lists 10 recommendations, including a pathology report audit and update to the hospital’s quality review process.Another investigation described an Indigenous patient who filed a grievance about how a hospital managed an investigation into their allegation of unwanted touching by a personal support worker. The ombudsman found that “despite the hospital’s best intentions, its investigation was not in keeping with trauma-informed practice and did not follow the hospital’s own policies.”The ombudsman’s office says it investigated a complaint from a 40-year-old who left the emergency department after nearly three hours in significant pain with a suspected ectopic pregnancy because “she was subjected to a harsh and humiliating environment where communication was terse and task-centred.” It also says no attempt was made to deter the patient from leaving against medical advice. A number of policy and education-related recommendations were made, such as training emergency department staff on patient-centred care.Resolutions sometimes also involve helping facilitate an apology, researching solutions and making suggestions to the organizations involved. Thompson says the hope is that the annual reports spotlight systemic issues that need attention, but in some cases it appears that message is not being received. He notes that the number of people who filed complaints about obstetrical and gynecological care increased by 29% from the previous year. Their experiences touch on pregnancy complications and miscarriages, sexual assaults, cancer care and delays in diagnosis.“These gaps in care highlight the need to improve patient-centred and trauma-informed care for patients who are pregnant and giving birth,” the report states. In response to the ombudsman’s findings, a spokesperson for the Health Ministry says it expects every hospital and healthcare partner to uphold the highest standard of patient care. “There are over 600,000 interactions with Ontario’s publicly funded healthcare system every day. One complaint about the safety of care is too many and that is why the Ontario government has taken steps to strengthen patient safety, and the patient experience in healthcare institutions across the province.”

Patient complaints on the rise in Ontario: ombudsman

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