November 28th, 2022

West urges Ford to listen to health care workers and address hospitals crisis

QUEEN’S PARK - During Question Period on Monday, Sudbury MPP Jamie West called on Doug Ford to listen to health care workers and take urgent action to fix the crisis in Ontario’s hospitals.

“Health care workers have been sounding the alarm that our hospitals are in crisis,” West said. “Across Ontario, we’re seeing pediatric ICUs forced to close, surgeries cancelled and delayed, health care workers facing unprecedented burnout, and patient wait times for adults and children ballooning.

“But instead of listening to the health workers’ pleas to address the problems of overcapacity hospitals and overwhelmed staff, Doug Ford and Health Minister Sylvia Jones flat-out refuse to acknowledge that our health care system is even in crisis.”

West cited accounts from workers who have reached out to his office. He referenced Pam, a nurse in Oshawa who said long wait times, burnt out workers and staff leaving has led to the worst health care crisis she has seen in generations. And to Nelson, a building operator at Halton region hospitals who reported seeing 50 people lined up to see a single triage nurse and people waiting in the ER for 12.5 hours due to a shortage of nurses.

“Why does the Ford government think it knows better than health care workers when it comes to what’s happening on the ground in our hospitals?” West pressed the government. “Doug Ford and Sylvia Jones must listen to health care workers like Pam and Nelson, admit Ontario’s healthcare is in crisis and commit to fixing it.

“The government needs to invest in positive solutions like the ones the NDP has been fighting for, including repealing Bill 124, incentivizing health care work by offering full-time jobs and good wages and benefits, increasing public health care funding and accelerating the accreditation of internationally trained nurses and doctors.”