Exorbitant Payouts, Cancelled Surgeries, Lack of Long-Term Care Beds Now the Norm

(Queen’s Park, Toronto) – While public sector executives at ORNGE and London Health Sciences are making millions of dollars a year in exorbitant salaries, bonuses and golden handshakes, patients and seniors in communities throughout Ontario, like Quinte and Chatham, continue to suffer. A lack of long-term care beds and homecare, cancelled surgeries and longer wait times are the new norm in Dalton McGuinty’s Ontario.

“On the very same day we learned that a hospital executive in London received a $1.4 million bonus, patients in Chatham are having their hip and knee replacement surgeries cancelled until April,” said PC Health Critic, MPP Elizabeth Witmer. “It’s absolutely appalling. This is what happens to patients when a government spends eight years without a plan for providing access to healthcare, without a long-term vision and without consideration of the impact on patients.”

Ontario’s health system is collapsing under gross Liberal mismanagement. Presently, over 1 million people are without a doctor, over 24,000 patients are waiting for a long-term care bed, there is a severe shortage of homecare support and wait times for emergency services and surgeries are increasing.   

“Every time Ontarians learn of a new scandal, more outrageous spending, cancelled surgeries and abuse in nursing homes, the Liberal government says, ‘Oops, we’ll do better.’ That’s not good enough, Ontarians are tired of the excuses and deserve immediate action to address the growing problem of access to quality care,” said Witmer.

“For eight years the Liberals have dithered, refusing to address the many problems our health system is facing. As a result, their mismanagement is hurting patients by lowering the accessibility and quality of Ontario’s health system,” Witmer said.

“It’s time for this government to assume responsibility and take decisive action on the problems facing our system,” added Witmer. “In Quinte, patients are languishing in hospitals waiting for a long-term care bed. In Chatham, patients are waiting an unacceptably long time for hip and knee surgeries. After eight years, the time for excuses is over.”

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