Wynne letting patients down, hospitals overcrowded heading into flu season

In question period Monday, NDP Health critic France Gélinas said Kathleen Wynne’s continued failure to address the hospital overcrowding crisis is letting down patients and health care professionals who are bracing for flu season.

Even at Brampton Civic Hospital, where information and patient experiences keep pointing to a desperate situation, Gélinas said that the Liberals continue to break their promise to address gridlock and hallway medicine.

“Last week, Holly Pothiah went to Brampton Civic Hospital — she was diagnosed with pneumonia,” said Gélinas. “And at that scary moment, when she needed a hospital bed, she was also told that Brampton Civic was too overcrowded, and that they could not take on any more patients. Just imagine having pneumonia and being told you can’t get a hospital bed. And being told the hospital is so overcrowded, it can’t help you.

“Holly was sent by ambulance to the emergency department at Etobicoke General Hospital. That’s where she spent two days and a night in a crowded hallway with many other patients and a warning-sign rather than an isolation room.”

After revealing that 4,352 patients were treated in the hallways of Brampton Civic Hospital last year, New Democrats tabled a motion calling for an additional $30.2 million to address immediate hospital overcrowding and open two mothballed operating rooms in Brampton. While this motion passed unanimously in the legislature in November, Kathleen Wynne quickly disappointed Brampton families by backtracking on the vote. The NDP has also revealed shocking overcrowding and overcapacity statistics at hospitals throughout Ontario, showing the extent and severity of the overcrowding crisis.

“The premier’s temporary beds are not a real solution,” said Gélinas. “Holly knows that. And now respected health care experts are saying the same thing. Dr. Paul Pageau, President of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians, says funding for the temporary beds, quote, ‘doesn’t seem to match up with what a normal hospital bed would be funded at.’

“And Dr. Doris Grinspun, CEO of RNAO, says ‘We will not succeed to staff those surge capacity beds because people want permanent full-time work’ – not part-time positions that only last a few months.”

“Why is this premier letting down people like Holly, by failing to stop the crisis of hallway medicine inside Ontario’s overcrowded hospitals?” asked Gélinas.

New Democrats have a plan that offers hope to families struggling to get the hospital care that they deserve. The NDP has pledged to fund hospitals, at a minimum, to the rate of inflation, population growth and to meet the unique needs of communities like Brampton. New Democrats have also committed to a moratorium on the firing of frontline hospital staff.