Statement from Ontario PC Health Critic Jeff Yurek on the Government’s Attacks on Doctors and Their Patients

The following is a statement from Ontario PC Health Critic Jeff Yurek on the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care’s attack on Ontario’s physicians and patients:

“It is shameful that Minister Hoskins has tried to blame the Liberal Government’s ongoing waste and mismanagement in the health care system on Ontario’s physicians.   Making this announcement the day before the largest health care protest in recent memory at Queen’s Park is nothing but a distraction tactic.    

The government has had two years to reach a deal with the Ontario Medical Association (OMA), yet instead of sitting down at the bargaining table, the government has chosen to attack our dedicated health care workers.   This goes directly against the best interest of patients and goes against the Premier’s much touted attitude of mediation and collaboration.

The reality is that the governments’ ongoing cuts to physicians – and the broader health care system – are a direct result of its scandal, waste, and mismanagement.   The end result is cuts to frontline health care workers and mental health beds, clinic closures, and longer waits times for surgeries, emergency rooms and long-term care. 

Each cut this government makes means more time that families have to wait to access much needed health care. It’s extra days waiting to see their doctor, an extra month waiting for an essential surgery, or months of waiting for a nursing bed.  

By continuing with its mismanagement, the government is turning its back on some of the province’s most vulnerable. 

The government should be working with the OMA to ensure we have a sustainable health care system that puts patients, without question, first.” 

Recent examples of the Wynne Liberals’ mismanagement includes:

• $815 million cut from physician services
• 50 medical residency positions eliminated  
• $20 million slashed from the assistive devices program 
• $50 million cut to physiotherapy services for seniors
• Nine consecutive years of hospital funding cuts, including four years of frozen hospital budgets
• More than 2,000 children with autism cut from the waitlist for IBI therapy following the 2-year transition phase