October 29, 2024
NDP MPPs demand answers for expectant mothers facing hospital closures in the North
QUEEN’S PARK – This morning during Question Period, Ontario NDP MPPs Guy Bourgoin (Mushkegowuk – James Bay) and France Gélinas (Nickel Belt) demanded answers from Ford’s Conservatives on hospital closures in the North, leaving pregnant women without medical care:
“Between Thunder Bay and Timmins there is only one hospital that has the capacity to deliver babies,” said Bourgouin. “Pregnant women all along this 800km stretch are told move to another community, up to four hours away, to make sure that they have a doctor when they go into labour. Now, the OB department in Kapuskasing is at risk of closing. Without urgent funding, we are going to lose the last hospital delivery room on highway 11 where women can safely give birth.”
“This government has the power to change this,” added Gélinas. “We had access to obstetric and delivery care in Northern Ontario before this government took power. Now Northerners are afraid that a pregnant Northerner or newborn will die before this minister does her job, secures the services left in Kapuskasing and restores all the obstetrical services that have closed under her watch”