Wawa-news.com You can't hear the 'big picture'!
NDP Health Care critic France Gélinas (Nickel Belt) is calling for urgent action after new Ontario Health data revealed that patients spent over 20 hours on average waiting in the ER for admission this July, with only 24 per cent of patients being admitted within an eight-hour benchmark. Gélinas released the following statement:
“We can all imagine the agony of sitting in the ER for 20 hours, in pain, waiting for a bed. We can imagine how gut-wrenching it is when it’s your child that’s in pain and forced to wait. Ontario is facing a dire shortage of nurses and doctors, and Premier Doug Ford’s plan to privatize care will only make the problem worse by siphoning health care workers out of hospitals. Patients who are waiting and waiting are paying far too high a price for Premier Doug Ford’s wage cap Bill 124, for his choice to leave health care funding unspent, and for his refusal to invest in health care workers.
Ontarians are paying too high a price. They deserve a world-class public health system that works for everyone, not just those willing and able to pay. Regardless of the size of your wallet, everyone deserves care when they need it, not painfully long waits. We can do this — we can repeal Bill 124 and give health care workers better pay and working conditions to respect, retain, return, and recruit nursing staff and health care professionals.”
