NDP: Liberal hospital cuts trap Hamilton couple in Costa Rica, awaiting bed

A Hamilton man and his wife are trapped in a Costa Rican hospital, waiting to be transferred back to Ontario after being told Ontario’s hospitals are too full to take him. That’s the result of decades of health care cuts by Liberals and Conservatives forcing the system to new lows, says NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.

“Imagine being hurt, and stuck in a foreign country. You want to come home, to get care in the hospital you know and trust. But you’re turned away because the hospitals are so crowded there’s no room for you,” said Horwath. “That’s absolutely not the kind of health care system people in Hamilton, and throughout this great province, deserve. These cuts – cuts that have been going on for years – have to stop.”

Hamilton residents David Ronald and his wife Kristen reached out to Horwath with their troubling story. Following a serious fall while hiking in Costa Rica, Ronald had to undergo emergency surgery. He required a second surgery in Hamilton, but according to Kristen, they were told they can’t come home because there were no hospital beds available for her husband – not in Hamilton, or anywhere near it.

Ronald had his second surgery in Costa Rica. He no longer needs an intensive care unit bed – but the couple are still in the Costa Rican hospital, now waiting for an acute care bed in a Hamilton hospital so he can be transferred home to recover.

“David is lucky to be alive,” said Horwath. “And he and Kristen are grateful for the medical care he has received, but they just want to come home. The fact that they were told they can’t be brought home simply because our health care system is too overburdened to care for him is a disturbing failure.”

The overcrowding has meant that patients are being treated in hallways, and that ambulances can’t unload patients into the emergency department – leaving them lined up outside the hospital, waiting with their patients. Code Zeros – when one or zero ambulances are available to get back onto the road and respond to emergencies – were called 31 times in January.

Local hospitals finished January with an overflow of more than 200 patients. Despite record high patient levels, in July 2017, it was announced that Hamilton Health Sciences was facing $20 million in additional cuts, with another $7 million in cuts at St. Joseph’s Healthcare.

“Dangerous overcrowding and hallway medicine are the new normal in Hamilton and across Ontario, but Ontarians don’t have to settle for this,” said Horwath, who outlined her health care priorities including universal pharmacare, a drug plan that covers all Ontarians; stable funding for hospitals; and a moratorium on health care staff layoffs.

“New Democrats believe health care and hospitals should be a priority – and we’re ready to do something about it. It’s time for a change – a change for the better.”