Dear Editor,
A historic health care rally occurred at Queen's Park this Saturday, with hundreds of doctors, patients, and other health care professionals joining together to protest the Liberal Government's gutting of Ontario's health care system.
We've seen the Wynne Liberals cut $815-million from physician services, $50-million from seniors' physiotherapy services, $20-million from the assistive devices program, and 50 medical residency positions. We've also seen the Government cut more than 2,000 children with autism from the Intensive Behavioural Intervention (IBI) therapy waitlist, the only treatment that is statistically effective at improving the development of autistic children. But this is not the first time this Government has forced Ontarians to payout of their own pocket for much-needed health-care services. Delisting has been extensive under this Government, beginning in 2004 with eye exams, physiotherapy, chiropractic care, and most recently, they quietly cut funding for test strips that diabetics use to monitor their blood sugar levels.The reality is that the government's continuing cuts are a result of their scandal, waste, and mismanagement. This is a government that wasted $1-billion on the e-Health scandal and another $1.2 billion on the Gas Plant fiasco. This is a government that has let 39 per cent of every dollar for home care go toward administration and bureaucracy rather than frontline care.
They are in fact so desperate to spin these cuts that Health Minister Eric Hoskins tried to blame their mismanagement on Ontario's physicians. In fact, they've tried to blame it on everyone except themselves: hospitals, nurses, and even patients.
For Ontario's patients, life is getting harder under the Liberals. Each cut translates into extra days waiting to see their doctor, an extra month waiting for an essential surgery, or months of waiting for a nursing bed.
Bottom line, with a reported 1,343 constituents looking for a doctor in Bruce-Grey and 800,000 people across Ontario without a family physician today, these cuts are making physician shortages even worse in Ontario. I believe Ontarians deserve a government that invests in frontline health care workers and makes the health of patients a top priority. It's time to tell Premier Wynne that enough is enough. Our most vulnerable people shouldn't be paying for this government's mistakes.
My colleagues and I will continue to hold the government to account for how their mismanagement is taking money out of health care. We will not stop fighting until we have a government and a Health Minister that values frontline workers, and unequivocally puts patients first and puts the money back where it belongs so that Ontarians can get the care they need and deserve.
Bill Walker MPP
