Government cuts wound Ontario’s patients

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Feb. 23, 2016

QUEEN’S PARK – Money that should be invested in front-line health care is being spent on things like cancelled gas plants.

Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Toby Barrett said, “Each day, the government’s waste and mismanagement of our money is hurting our family, friends, seniors and families.”

PC Health Critic Jeff Yurek took aim at the Premier and Minister of Health today on the subject during question period: “In addition to the $815 million cut from physician services, this government cut $54 million from the health care budget last year, despite a six per cent increase in the federal government’s health transfer. Because of that cut and cuts to physiotherapy and eye care, Ontario patients are suffering, and it will only get worse. This Liberal government is so out of touch, they refuse to admit their cuts are forcing doctors to close practices and forcing hospitals to fire nurses.”

Following question period, Barrett then took the opportunity to present health care petitions from local doctors and patients – petitions asking the Ontario Government to make patient-focused care a priority.

Specifically, the petition calls on the “The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care to return to the table with Ontario’s doctors and work together through mediation-arbitration to reach a fair deal that protects the quality, patient-focused care Ontario’s families deserve.”

The petition sites Ontario’s aging and growing population as an increased pressure on the publicly-funded health care system. Further, it explains that since February 2015, the Ontario government has made an almost seven per cent unilateral cut to physician services expenditures which cover all the care doctors provide to patients.

“The decisions Ontario makes today will impact patients’ access to quality care in the years to come and these cuts will threaten access to the quality, patient-focused care Ontarians need and expect,” the petition reads.

“It’s high time patients and doctors teamed up to call the government out on its abysmal approach to health care in our province,” said Barrett. “Patients are suffering, and it won’t get better. This government is out of touch and they refuse to admit their cuts are forcing doctors to close practices and forcing hospitals to fire nurses.”

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For more information, contact MPP Toby Barrett at 519-428-0446 or toby.barrett@pc.ola.org