Ontario Patient Ombudsman report slams Health atHome’s bungling of medical supply shortages

Sept. 25, 2025

By Ana Pereira, Business Reporter for the Toronto Star

Patient Ombudsman Craig Thompson describes home care as critical. “When a disruption leads to patients not getting care, we all lose confidence in the health care system.” R.J. Johnston/Toronto Star file photo

Report points to a ‘lack of effective oversight’ last fall when patients and caregivers reported shipments of medical supplies and pain-relief drugs arriving late — and sometimes, not at all.

Ontario’s Patient Ombudsman has found that a massive shortage of critical medical equipment for patients receiving care at home is the result, in part, of complacency by the provincial agency supposed to oversee the distribution of medical supplies.

According to a report released by the Patient Ombudsman’s office on Wednesday, the timing of the shortage that began in September 2024 coincided with Ontario Health atHome’s changes to contracts with suppliers of home care tools.

At the time, patients and their caregivers reported that shipments of medical supplies were arriving late or, sometimes, not at all.

Doctors said that the shortages also affected pain-relief drugs and some medical-assistance-in-dying (MAID) kits, which were showing up incomplete.

Read more at The Toronto Star