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April 9, 2024

From Right to Luxury: Ford’s Policies Destroying Rural Ontario’s Healthcare

QUEEN’S PARK — Official Opposition NDP Health critic France Gélinas (Nickel Belt) released the following statement highlighting the horrendous state of healthcare in rural and Northern Ontario under the leadership of Premier Ford:

“After six years, Premier Ford’s neglect has plunged Northern Ontario’s healthcare into a crisis state with no signs of improvement. In Sault Ste. Marie, 10,000 people will lose access to healthcare next month. With 280 emergency room closures and 1200 hospital service shutdowns, rural and northern Ontario are bearing the brunt of Ford’s underfunding and neglect.

“In Elmvale, Springwater, the community was on the brink of gaining access to much-needed healthcare, with a doctor ready to open a shop. However, the health minister denied their proposal, dashing their hopes and leaving elderly seniors without timely access to care.

“Access to care, once considered a fundamental right, has become a luxury. It’s a shameful legacy for this government, which has done so little to address this crisis, setting our healthcare system back decades.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. The NDP and Ontarians know we have solutions. It’s time for Ford’s Conservatives to step up today and fulfill their duty to the people of rural and Northern Ontario by investing in our healthcare system.”

April 8, 2024

April is “Be A Donor” Month

QUEEN’S PARK – France Gélinas, MPP for Nickel Belt rose in the legislature to make a statement recognizing the arrival of April as ‘’BeADonor’’ month.

“April is “BeADonor” month a month dedicated to raising awareness about organ and tissue donation. The Trillium Gift of Life Network states 90% of Ontarians want to be a donor but only 35% have registered. Right now, about 1,400 Ontarians are waiting for a life-saving organ and sadly every 3 days someone dies waiting for an organ.

Three years ago, Nova Scotia implemented an organ donation system where all Nova Scotians are considered donors, unless they opt out. The first year saw an increase of 40% in tissue donations and numbers continue to increase. Ontario is ready for this speaker. I have tabled the ‘’Savings Organs to Save Lives bill’’ in memory of Peter Kormos, 6 times. There is no opposition to it, let’s get it done!

But until it happens, I want to thank every Ontarian who has registered to be a donor and saved lives. I want to thank my constituent Richard St-Amour, his work helped Nickel Belt achieve 57% registration to Be A Donor.

Yesterday, April 7th, was green shirt day. Logan Boulet’s organs donation inspired 100,000 Canadians to register as donors. Logan died in the tragic Humboldt Brocos junior hockey team bus crash, in Saskatchewan. We wear green to recognize Logan and all the donors who have given and saved lives.

Last year in Ontario 365 deceased donors gave the gift of life, leading to 1,152 organ transplants. The lives of thousands were improved thanks to 1,853 tissue donors.”

March 27, 2024

MPP France Gélinas wants to recognize Caregivers

QUEEN’S PARK – Ontario NDP Health critic and MPP for Nickel Belt France Gélinas re-introduced an Act proclaiming Family Caregiver Day. This is the fourth time MPP Gélinas has introduced this piece of legislation. This bill would proclaim the first Tuesday of every April as Family Caregiver Day.

“Family caregiver” is the term used for a family member, friend or person of choice who gives care to someone who has care needs due to a disability, a physical, neurological, or mental condition, a chronic illness, frailty or age” the bill’s pre-amble states. “Recognition and awareness of these caregivers should be increased, and their valuable social and economic contribution to society should be acknowledged and supported.”

According to the Ontario Caregiver Coalition (OCC) 3.3 million or 29% of Ontarians are unpaid family caregivers. This includes 500,000 young carers between the ages of 15 – 24 years of age providing on average 14-27 hours of care per week. These caregivers devote countless hours of unpaid care to those who are most in need and their efforts, often go unrecognized. They form the backbone of our health care system. This task is no easy feat. It is therefore of the utmost importance that their valuable contributions to society be acknowledged and supported.

Lauren Bates, Chair of the Ontario Caregiver Coalition stated “Ontario’s unpaid family caregivers are essential to the wellbeing of their loved ones, and the backbone of Ontario’s healthcare system, often at significant cost to their own health, wellbeing and finances. Recognizing the essential work of caregivers is an important step towards supporting everything they do.”

Fourteen years ago, the Parliament of Canada unanimously adopted a motion declaring the first Tuesday in April as “The Invisible Work Day.” This day was designated to recognize the importance of the “invisible” unpaid work carried out by parents and caregivers on behalf of their children and aging family members, as well as the volunteer work done in the community.

The OCC brings together unpaid caregivers and organizations that support them, including the Alzheimer Society of Ontario, Parkinson Canada, MS Canada, Ontario Community Support Association, Home Care Ontario and many more.

 

Le 27 mars, 2024

La députée provinciale France Gélinas veut reconnaître les aidantes et aidants naturels

QUEEN’S PARK – La porte-parole du NPD de l’Ontario en matière de santé et députée provinciale de Nickel Belt, France Gélinas, a déposé à nouveau un projet de loi proclamant le Jour des aidants naturels. C’est la quatrième fois que la députée Gélinas présente ce projet de loi. Ce projet de loi proclamerait le premier mardi de chaque mois d’avril le Jour des aidants naturels.

L’expression ” aidant naturel ” désigne un membre de la famille, un-e ami-e ou une personne de son choix qui s’occupe d’une personne ayant besoin de soins en raison d’un handicap, d’un problème physique, neurologique ou mentale, d’une maladie chronique, d’une faiblesse ou de son âge “, peut-on lire dans le préambule du projet de loi. “Les aidant.es naturels méritent d’être mieux connus du public et leurs utilité sociale et économique pour la société devrait être reconnue et valorisée”.

Selon la Coalition des aidantes et aidants naturels de l’Ontario (CANO), 3,3 millions d’Ontariens, soit 29 % de la population, sont des aidants naturels non rémunérés. Parmi eux, 500 000 jeunes aidants âgés de 15 à 24 ans fournissent en moyenne 14 à 27 heures de soins par semaine. Ces personnes consacrent d’innombrables heures de soins non rémunérés aux personnes qui en ont le plus besoin et leurs efforts sont souvent méconnus. Ils forment l’épine dorsale de notre système de soins de santé. Cette tâche n’est pas facile. Il est donc de la plus haute importance que leur précieuse contribution à la société soit reconnue et soutenue.

Lauren Bates, présidente de la Coalition des aidantes et aidants naturels de l’Ontario, a déclaré : ” Les aidant.es naturels non rémunérés de l’Ontario sont essentiels au bien-être de leurs proches et constituent l’épine dorsale du système de soins de santé de l’Ontario, souvent au détriment de leur propre santé, de leur bien-être et de leurs finances. Reconnaître le travail essentiel des aidant.es naturel est un pas important vers le soutien de tout ce qu’ils et qu’elles font”.

Il y a quatorze ans, le Parlement du Canada a adopté à l’unanimité une motion déclarant le premier mardi d’avril “Journée du travail invisible”. Cette journée a été désignée pour reconnaître l’importance du travail non rémunéré “invisible” effectué par les parents et les aidants naturels au nom de leurs enfants et des membres vieillissants de la famille, ainsi que le travail bénévole effectué dans la communauté.

La CANO rassemble les aidantes et aidants non rémunérés et les organisations qui les soutiennent, notamment la Société Alzheimer de l’Ontario, Parkinson Canada, Sclérose en Plaques Canada, l’Association ontarienne de soutien communautaire, Soins à domicile Ontario et beaucoup d’autres.

March 21, 2024

In Homecare, For-Profit delivery leads to Public Pains

QUEEN’S PARK – France Gélinas, MPP for Nickel Belt rose in the legislature to share the challenges Nickel Belt constituents face accessing Ontario’s homecare.

“This morning, I want to share examples from my riding of why privatization of our health care system is harmful. We all know that when the conservative government of Mike Harris was in power, they privatized our home care system. Private companies were going to make home care work more efficiently, serve more people, offer more care. Now we all know that none of that is true. The privatization of home care made 100s of millions of dollars for private companies’ shareholders with dire repercussions on the people needing care.

Take Tina Senior’s beautiful 6 years old son Alex. Bayshore gets paid 1.5 hours of nursing care daily while Alex is at school, but they only schedule the nurse to be there for 15 minutes. So, his mom Tina a nurse with over 20 years experience at HSN had to quit her job in order to keep her son’s safe.

Mrs. C from Hanmer agreed to take her husband home from the hospital while he awaits placement in a LTC home, with the help of home care services. Of course, home care never shows up when they are supposed to. But get this Speaker, since her daughter mentioned that she would go help her Dad after work. Now the only time Bayshore offers that family care if after 3:00 and since the family refuses care, Bayshore gets paid but no care is provided and this elderly women is completely burned out.

The list goes on, this is what privatization does. Money for share holders and suffering for people needing care”

March 7, 2024

Residents of Cat Lake need Minister’s help

QUEEN’S PARK – During today’s Question Period, NDP Health Critic France Gélinas (Nickel Belt) asked Minister of Health Sylvia Jones to help the residents of Cat Lake regain access to health care services.

“Equity of access to health care is the responsibility of the Minister of Health. For decades, the residents of Cat Lake had access to excellent nurses and nurse practitioners, but their nursing station burned down last week. They can not just go to the closest walk-in clinic, this is a fly-in First Nation community. They have no access to care.

Is the Minister going to simply add the 650 residents of Cat Lake, to the 10,000 residents of Sault Ste Marie to the 2.2 million Ontarians who do not have access to primary care? Or is she going to take her responsibilities and work on a solution to give the residents of Cat Lake access to care?”

According to figures released by the Ontario College of Family Physicians, Ontario is on track to have more than 4.4 million Ontarians without access to primary care by 2026.

March 4, 2024

Ontario’s patients lining up outside in the cold in the hope of accessing primary care

QUEEN’S PARK – During today’s Question Period, NDP Health Critic France Gélinas (Nickel Belt) asked Minister of Health Sylvia Jones to explain why Kingston residents were forced to wait hours in the cold last week for the chance to gain access to a primary care provider.

“Last week hundreds of people in Kingston got up at 3:00 am to go stand outside in the cold and wind for a chance of gain access to primary care. How can the minister explain that?”

The CBC reported that the CDK Family Medicine and Walk-In Clinic in Kingston held rostering days last week that saw hundreds of patients, line up for blocks hoping to register with a family doctor.

“The minister should be ashamed. Sick people, frail, elderly people standing out side for hours.  This is happening under her watch. Everyone agrees the solution is in interdisciplinary care. Where physicians work along social workers, nurses, dietitians, health promoters. You have received solutions from hundreds and hundreds of communities. Why are you only funding 78 of them?”

Last month Health Minister Sylvia Jones announced over money for 78 “new and expanded primary care teams” across the province as part of a bilateral health-care deal with the federal government, while hundreds of communities go without.

 

February 29, 2024

Ontario’s patients have waited too long for coverage of Take Home Cancer Drugs

QUEEN’S PARK – During today’s Question Period, NDP Health Critic France Gélinas (Nickel Belt) asked Minister of Health Sylvia Jones how much longer Ontario Patients will need to wait for take home cancer drugs.

“British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec all cover Take Home CancerDdrugs, some of them for over a decade. But in Ontario we let people face administrative and emotional barriers on their already difficult cancer recovery journey.

Minister in 2022 your government said it would consider covering take home cancer drugs. Now the Canadian Cancer Society is calling out this government.  The data is clear: access to take home cancer drugs save lives. Minister how much longer are we going to have to wait for Ontario to cover take home cancer drugs?.”

All medicines in hospital are free for Ontario patients, modern cancer therapies are no longer delivered via IV but instead are in pill form taken at home. These therapies save time for patients and health professionals, but Ontario continues to force Ontarians to pay for cancer medication if they are not delivered in a hospital. Although the 2022 budget “committed to bringing together an advisory table to explore improvements to access to take‐home cancer drugs” stakeholders like the Cancer Society have indicated no committee was assembled. The Ontario NDP committed to funding take home cancer drugs in their 2014 and all subsequent election platforms.

 

February 23, 2024

Support Ontarians at Home

QUEEN’S PARK – France Gélinas, MPP for Nickel Belt rose in the legislature to speak about the challenges Ontario’s homecare clients and Personal Support Workers face.

“People in Ontario want to age at home, they do not want to move in a Long-Term Care home. We know how to support people in their own homes where they want to be. We have the knowledge and the skills; but frail, elderly Ontarians face a broken home care system. In Ontario for profit home care companies are more interested in making a profit then in providing people with the care and support that they need to stay home safely.

A Personal Support Worker was in my office a few days ago, asking how he could continue to service his clients in Dowling and Onaping – rural northern communities in my riding – after Canadian Shield cut his milage rate in half, from 52 cents to 25 cents a kilometer.

Speaker most home care workers do not get paid between clients, in my riding they may drive for 30, or 45 minutes between clients all on their own time for 25 cents a kilometer. It doesn’t matter how hard they work it is impossible to make enough money to survive. So many PSW who love their clients, who are good at what they do, have no choice but to leave the home care system in order to feed their kids and pay their rent.

Right now Paramed a for profit home care company is withholding money that the government has send to PSW working in home care in order to gain concessions from their PSW. All this is happening under this government watch, it is so wrong.

People needing home care deserve better, PSW working in home care deserve better!”

February 22, 2024

When will the Capreol Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinic get the money they have been asking for since 2021?

QUEEN’S PARK – During Wednesday’s Question Period, NDP Health Critic France Gélinas (Nickel Belt) called out Ford’s conservatives for yet another shameful milestone. Sudbury’s new private for-profit Nurse Practitioner Clinic charging patients money for each visit.

“The nurse practitioner who opened the clinic said, and I will quote her words, “Had the Capreol clinic received funding to hire a permanent position, I would have likely stayed there.” I have hand delivered modest funding proposals from Capreol Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinic to the Minister numerous times since 2021,” said Gélinas. “We have underemployed Nurse Practitioners in Northern Ontario. They would love to care for us in the public system, but this government is forcing them to open private clinics.“

“Every day brings new reports of healthcare workers leaving our public system,” said Gélinas. “The numbers reveal that this government is diverting funds from the public system to fund a private two-tier health care system. We can’t retain our homegrown professionals in the public system because the Conservative government still refuses to fund permanent positions in public not for profit clinics.  The NDP will not stand by while this happens. We demand this government takes the healthcare crisis seriously and commit to saving Medicare, where care is based on needs not on ability to pay!”

“When will the Capreol NPL clinic get the money they have been asking for since 2021?” asked MPP Gélinas. *Minister Jones responded that the people of Capreol should be satisfied with the recent funding announcement for the Chapleau and District Family Health team.  Showing once again how little, they know about Northern Ontario- when Highway 144 is open it is a 5.5 hours drive from Capreol to Chapleau.

In a presentation to the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic affairs at the Radisson Hotel in Sudbury in January of this year, Executive Director of the Capreol Clinic, Nurse Practitioner Amanda Rainville stated “We (the Capreol clinic) are at full capacity and are unable to intake any new patients with our current funding.”

December 5, 2023

More and more Emergency Room closures under this conservative government

This morning during question period, NDP Health Critic France Gélinas, MPP for Nickel Belt, questioned Minister of Health Sylvia Jones about the unprecedented number of Emergency Room closures the Ontario Health Coalition could identify so far in 2023.

” The Ontario Health Coalition was able to identify 1199 vital hospital services closures, 868 ER closures, 316 urgent care closures, 11 obstetrics closures, the list goes on, labour and delivery closures, ICU closures, hospital out-patients lab closures. Every single one of these closures put patient health and life at risk.

The Minister must be very proud, her plan to create a crisis in our health care system is working perfectly. How many more private clinics will the minister be able to fund given this level of crisis?”

The recently closed Minden Emergency Room is becoming a Community Nursing Clinic in Partnership with SE Health and ParaMed Home Health Care. Former Minister of Health Christine Elliott sits on the board at SE Health while ParaMed Home Health is a subsidiary Extendicare Inc.