Cutting health care workers won’t end hallway medicine

Health Minister walks back Doug Ford’s comments on hallway medicine

QUEEN’S PARK — Last week, speaking from Saskatoon, Doug Ford said his government has addressed hallway medicine, and would end the practice within a year. On Monday, Health Minister Christine Elliott walked those comments back. Official Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath released the following statement in response:

“Across Ontario, people are waiting hours and hours in emergency rooms, and laying on stretchers in hospital hallways because there aren’t enough hospital beds. Ambulances are forced to wait — sometimes for hours — to offload patients. And some patients are walking away from ER waiting rooms, never getting a chance to see a doctor, because waiting in pain and discomfort becomes unbearable.

It’s obvious today that Christine Elliott had to walk back Doug Ford’s claims about ending hallway medicine because he was caught making stuff up again. You don’t end hallway medicine by cutting health care and health care workers.

Not only is Doug Ford failing to listen to front-line hospital staff, patients and families when they describe what’s happening in hospitals, but his actions so far have done nothing to fix hallway medicine. In fact, he’s only making things worse.

Doug Ford laid off hundreds of full-time health care staff, and cut over 800 health care jobs. Ford’s 2019 budget slashed $2.7 billion from health care spending over the next two years. And he’s siphoning health care dollars into his creation of a super-bureaucracy, as part of changes to the health care system that will also give private, for-profit corporations an unprecedented chance to make money off health care in Ontario.

Cutting health care won’t end hallway medicine, and neither will Ford’s attempt to paper over the crisis.”