Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath was in Sault Ste. Marie yesterday to address the shortages of health professionals and what she calls the shortfalls of the health system.
She introduced a three-prong plan including addressing staffing shortages, a focus on increasing the numbers of graduates from the Northern Ontario School of Medicine and other medical programs and addressing low wages in the sector.
Horwath also says she wants to see a plan focusing on the LHINs and the delivery of health care in the province.
She adds if they form the government this June, there will also be a focus placed on the opioid crisis, which has hit the northeast especially hard.
“Northerners are waiting too long and travelling too far to get the health care they need. Without enough doctors, nurses and specialists, people wait hours and hours in the ER, they wait to see specialists, and they wait in pain for surgery. Without enough family doctors, chronic conditions like high blood pressure can go unmanaged. And a lot of northerners are simply hitting the highway, driving hours away to get the care they need and deserve,” said Horwath.
“We’ve got to fix it. And together, we can fix it. With more doctors and nurses, we can help people get care sooner, closer to home. It’s time to invest in Northern health care.”
Sault Ste. Marie needs at least 20 more doctors, just to keep hospitals afloat. People visiting the emergency room in the Sault wait at least four hours to see a doctor, and an average of 4.8 hours to be admitted. Across the North, more than 300 doctors are needed.
The previous Liberal government, including Steven Del Duca and Kathleen Wynne, froze hospital funding for years, cutting 1,600 nurses. On top of cuts and underspending, Doug Ford has made the staffing shortage worse with a low-wage policy, which is disrespecting nurses and other health care professionals and driving them away.
Horwath and the NDP will force a vote in the legislature to commit resources and dollars to start to fix the doctor, nurse and specialist shortage in the North. It would fund a plan to attract, train and retain nurses, physicians, and specialists in Northern Ontario, expand the number of seats and training opportunities at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, and the repeal of Ford’s low-wage police, Bill 124. The NDP is also committed to fixing the Northern Health Travel Grant for times when families do have to travel to get the care they need and deserve.