NDP feels, Ford’s hospital cuts are the elephant in the room in Brampton

Ford cuts could mean $96 million less for Brampton-area hospitals 

The NDP’s commitment on health care includes:  

• Immediately investing $1.2 billion into Ontario hospitals – and providing stable funding that increases annually by at least 5.3 per cent, to keep up with inflation, and meet the pressures of population growth and aging, and other unique needs in the community 
• Opening 2,000 new hospital beds, immediately 
• Launching Canada’s first every truly universal pharmacare plan, which will keep people healthier, and relieve pressure on hospitals  
• Stopping staff cuts with a moratorium on any further layoffs of nurses and health care workers 
• Investing at least $19 billion dollars over the next 10 years to expand the province’s hospital capacity and add more beds 

While Doug Ford visits Brampton, the elephant in the room will be the billions of dollars in cuts he’s planning – cuts that will do deep damage to already-crowded hospitals like Brampton Civic Hospital.

In just one year, between April 2016 and April 2017, 4,352 patients were treated in hallways at Brampton Civic, because no rooms were available. Doug Ford’s promise of at least $6 billion in cuts across the board would mean the painfully long waits would get longer, and the hallway medicine crisis would get worse.  And when it comes to privatization, Doug Ford has promised “to leave no stone unturned,” putting our entire healthcare system at risk.   “The last time we put the Conservatives in charge of health care, with the Mike Harris government, they fired 6,000 nurses, closed 28 hospitals and slashed over 7,000 hospital beds,” said Gurratan Singh, the NDP candidate in Brampton East.  “The Ford cuts could mean even more damage, with $96 million less for Brampton-area hospitals. But is doesn’t have to be this way. We can give Brampton families the health care they deserve,” he added. The NDP platform, Change for the Better, commits to immediately funding 2,000 new hospital beds and funding hospitals to keep up with population growth and aging, inflation and the unique needs of the community.