As the London Children’s Hospital faces an overcapacity crisis, three local Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs) are calling on the Ford government to “deliver urgent support to Ontario’s health care system.”
On Friday, New Democratic MPP’s Peggy Sattler, Teresa Armstrong, and Terence Kernanghan, representing London West, London-Fanshawe, and London North Centre, respectively, issued a statement to the Ford government. This came after the London Health Sciences Centre shared the unprecedented steps it is taking to meet the overwhelming demand in the pediatric hospital.
“The situation in our London hospitals is absolutely unsustainable,” said Armstrong. “Children are waiting hours for care, while others are having vital surgeries postponed. Parents are afraid that if their child needs medical care over the holidays, they may face long waits, overcrowded rooms, or even an airlift to a different city. For any parent, that is terrifying.”
“Health care workers have been through so much in the last few years,” added Sattler. “It’s unfair that the Ford government has put our hospitals in the position to ask even more of them because our hospitals simply don’t have the resources to deal with this surge.”
“Nothing about this crisis is okay. [Doug] Ford and [Sylvia] Jones are wrong to waste public money appealing their unlawful Bill 124,” said Kernaghan.
Bill 124, dubbed the “Protecting a Sustainable Public Sector for Future Generations Act,” limits salary increases for hospital workers, including nurses.
“The government can and must fix the staffing crisis in health care by recruiting, retaining, and returning nurses with competitive wages and benefits,” Kernaghan concluded. “We are calling on Ford to immediately bring back the legislature to do the work that is needed to address the crisis in hospitals like London’s Children’s Hospital and beyond.”
Read original story from London Ontario – BlackburnNews.com