Doug Ford Will Cut Wait Times for the People

Releases plan to end ‘hallway health care’ with 30,000 new long-term care beds

Doug Ford visited with local health care practitioners today to share his plan to cut wait times and put an end to the ‘hallway healthcare’ epidemic that has Ontario hospitals stretched to the breaking point.

“The first thing we’re going to do is listen to health care professionals, including the nurses and doctors who are on the frontlines,” said Ford.  “We’re then going to cut wait times by opening up new long-term care beds across the province. This will ensure that people who need care can always get the best possible care, while taking the strain off our hospitals for everybody else.”

Under Doug Ford’s Plan for the People, an Ontario PC Government will invest in 15,000 new long-term care beds in five years, and 30,000 new beds over the next 10 years.

Ford contrasted his commitment to frontline health care to the out-of-control spending, scandals and waste that have defined Kathleen Wynne’s mismanagement of the health care system. Over the last 15 years the total number of Assistant Deputy Ministers at the Ministry of Health has grown from six to 21.

“If your kid has a fever or your mom has a fall, you don’t go down to the Ministry of Health to have it looked at — instead you go to your local doctors and nurses,” said Ford. “If Kathleen Wynne had invested in doctors and nurses and patients the same way she has invested in new senior health care bureaucrats, then every town would have a doctor, wait times would be a thing of the past and patients wouldn’t be stuck on stretchers in our hospital hallways.”

“Ontario’s health care system deserves change that will respect patients, and health care professionals,” said Ford. “My message to the people who are waiting, and the people who are frustrated, is that change is coming and help is on the way.”