September 8, 2022
Minister Jones is ashamed to talk about her privatization plans
This morning during question period MPP France Gélinas (Nickel Belt) asked the Ford government why the Ministry of Health is exacerbating the health human resources crisis by encouraging private clinics to siphon staff from our public hospitals.
“People who waited hours in the emergency room in pain. People who had to leave the hospital without getting the care they needed. People who have waited in agony for urgent surgery. All this because of staff shortages, being made worse every day by this government’s actions.Why is this government willing to make the waiting worse by expanding private surgical clinics siphoning more of our staff away from public hospitals?’’
Over the summer more that 26 hospitals have temporarily closed their emergency departments due to staff shortages.
“Families in Ontario have watched as the crisis in health care has gotten worse and worse. Over the summer, at least 26 hospitals have been forced to close their emergency department to patients. And across the province, nurses and health care workers are leaving in droves. More than ever, we need a plan to strengthen publicly-delivered health care and support nurses and front line health care workers who provide it. Why is this government so determined to let this crisis go on and tell us that the only way out is to privatize more of our health care system?”
In August the Ford government announced they will increase surgical capacity by funding surgical procedures in private facilities; although they did not specify the type of surgeries that would be done in these clinics.
“Nurses and health care workers have been crystal clear: this government is making the health care crisis worse. Whether it is punishing seniors by forcing them away from their family into substandard for-profit long-term-care homes; whether it is funding more for-profit clinics, pulling money and staff away from the public system, the crisis is getting worse not better. No one in Ontario should be wondering whether the emergency department is going to be open when they need it” Gélinas concluded. “Will the government stop selling more of our health care system to private investors and bring in a staffing strategy that will improve publicly delivered health care”