Government Mismanagement Has Left Health Care System in Shambles: Brown

QUEEN’S PARK – This morning, Leader of the Official Opposition Patrick Brown criticized how the Liberal Government’s mismanagement of the health care system is harming patients.

“We learned from the Auditor General that the backlog of long-term care complaints and critical incidents has more than doubled under Premier Wynne,” stated Leader Patrick Brown.  “The backlog isn’t an issue the government can shrug off when the majority of critical incidents requiring inspections were revealed to be a result of neglect or abuse.”

In 2014, there were 1,750 neglect or abuse incidents that were reported in Ontario’s long-term care homes, yet the Liberal Government failed to act.

“Ontario’s long-term care homes must be held to the highest standard when it comes to the dignity, health and safety of our most vulnerable citizens,” Leader Patrick Brown added. “Why isn’t the government prioritizing these complaints?”

The Auditor General’s report also revealed that since their creation 8 years ago, the Liberal Government has failed to define the role of its Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs), or establish a way to judge their performance.  As a result, none of the 14 LHINs have ever met all of its performance targets to provide timely and equitable patient care throughout the province.

“The Minister’s response to these problems, according to the Auditor General, was to take little action to hold LHINs accountable when their low performance continued,” continued Leader Patrick Brown.  “Why does Health Minister Hoskins ignore these problems, as targets are missed and wait times increase?”

Brown concluded, “Ontario’s health care system is in crisis.  We have two levels of healthcare bureaucracy – the LHINs and CCACs – that the average patient doesn’t interact with.  Instead, that’s where patients interact with personal support workers, nurses and primary and allied health care providers.  That’s where funding should be going.”