|
Newsletter
|
Donate
Gélinas continues to voice concerns over emergency room closures
Posted: December 8, 2023
(December 7, 2023)
By: Sudbury
Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas, who is also the Ontario opposition health critic, said the numerous temporary closures of hospital emergency rooms in Ontario is putting lives at risk.
Gélinas was voicing her concern in the Ontario Legislature on Tuesday when she quoted a number of department closures that have occurred to date in 2023.
“The Ontario Health Coalition was able to identify 1,199 vital hospital services closures, 868 ER closures, 316 urgent care closures, 11 obstetrics closures — the list goes on. Labour and delivery closures, ICU closures, hospital out-patients lab closures. Every single one of these closures put patient health and life at risk,” Gélinas told the legislature.
“The Minister must be very proud, her plan to create a crisis in our health-care system is working perfectly. How many more private clinics will the minister be able to fund given this level of crisis?“
Health Minister Sylvia Jones said Gélinas was mentioning numbers that had not been measured previously. Jones said no other provincial government has recorded those incidents before, and had not saved any data.
“And frankly, you cannot manage what you don’t measure,” said Jones, adding her Conservative government is measuring those changes.
Jones added her government continues to make investments in health care and she mentioned the recent 52-bed expansion at Health Sciences North and the 72-bed expansion for St. Joseph’s continuing care centre.
