SUDBURY -- Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles is calling on the premier to take specific action to halt the growing health care and wait time crisis in Ontario.
Stiles told a news conference Thursday that the Conservatives continue to ignore obvious health care concerns and are not living up to Premier Doug Ford's promise to end the hallway medicine problems that cropped up under the previous Liberal government.
“Last year, we saw hundreds of emergency rooms and urgent care centres shuttered; people forced to travel far because their ER or urgent care centre lacked the staff to stay open,” Stiles told reporters Thursday.
Stiles said health care issues are getting worse by the day. Her claims come in the midst of current contract negotiations between the Ontario Hospital Association and the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions.
“Doug Ford promised to fix the Liberals’ hallway medicine crisis, but things are only getting worse. The premier needs to stop pretending this crisis doesn’t exist. He can bring the Legislature back right now and work with us to reduce health care wait times," said Stiles.
A news release issued by the New Democrats outlined three challenges to the Conservatives:
Drop its appeal of Bill 124: the Conservatives are spending untold millions in public dollars fighting a Supreme Court ruling that declared their wage-suppressing legislation unconstitutional.
Establish safe nurse-patient staffing ratios: Follow in the footsteps of British Columbia and establish minimum nurse-patient staffing ratios to ensure quality of care.
Cap agency nurses: Pass the Ontario NDP’s legislation to ensure every hospital and long-term care home in a municipality of 8,000 residents or more limit its spending on health care staffing agencies within two years. Prevent the poaching of public nurses by prohibiting agencies from paying their workers more than 10 per cent above the rate in the public workplace.
