Patients will be hurt by 825 health care job cuts: NDP

QUEEN'S PARK — The Official Opposition NDP says patients will be impacted by Doug Ford's move to cut 825 health care workers.

"Patients battling cancer can't afford to have Cancer Care Ontario operations upended with firings. Those waiting for an organ donor match to be found can't afford for the Trillium Gift of Life Network's work to grind to a halt. Those desperately waiting for home care can't afford for home care coordinators to be taken away from them," said NDP MPP Marit Stiles.

"When Doug Ford said no one would lose their job, he was making stuff up. And now, here he goes again, pretending that he can fire hundreds of health care workers without hurting patients."

The Ford government has notably not released information about which departments will see cuts. A report by the independent Financial Accountability Office (FAO) shows that Ford’s 2019 budget will see $2.7 billion slashed from health-care spending over the next two years.

"Health care in Ontario was left hanging by a thread by Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals, and Doug Ford is now cutting the thread," said Stiles. "That leaves us all worried that the hallway medicine crisis, the long waits, and the troubles in Ontario's health care system are going to go from bad to worse."