Statement from NDP MPP-elects France Gélinas and Jamie West regarding Sudbury’s Health Sciences North

NDP MPP-elects Jamie West and France Gélinas released the following statement on coming layoffs at Health Sciences North:

“New Democrats are calling on Premier-designate Doug Ford to stop the cuts at Sudbury’s hospital – including 76 jobs now on the chopping block.

Staff at Sudbury’s Health Sciences North were worried about their jobs under Kathleen Wynne’s hospital cuts, and are now facing the reality of valuable positions being cut under Doug Ford’s administration. Our hearts go out to the hard-working and caring health providers doing a tough job while wondering if they’re about to fall victim to cuts, and wondering if they’ll be able to pay the bills by the end of the month.

During the election, Mr. Ford promised that no one would lose their jobs under his administration. We’re asking him to live up to his word and protect these people from layoffs – and protect patients from even longer waits at Health Sciences North.

Years of underfunding, budget freezes, and cuts have hurt Ontario’s hospitals. At Health Sciences North, that has meant patients wait far too long, and the overcrowding from the backlog has meant that patients have been crammed into inappropriate spaces.

Our friend Leo Seguin was left for days in a bathroom, his hospital bed and pillow pushed right up to the toilet seat. That’s not the dignified, high-quality care that people in Sudbury and all Ontarians deserve.

We don’t need layoffs in health care – we need a moratorium on any layoffs of frontline health care workers, as Andrea Horwath and the NDP have called for. We are calling on Mr. Ford to ensure that Health Sciences North gets the funding it needs to keep its staff before a bad situation at Health Sciences North gets even worse.”