Ongoing Cuts to Ontario’s Doctors Put Patient Care at Risk

QUEEN’S PARK – Following a morning meeting with OMA representatives, Leader of the Official Opposition Patrick Brown questioned the Deputy Premier on her government’s cuts to physician services, and larger cuts to health care and front line services.

Brown referenced the imposed cuts of $235 million on October 1 and $580 million on February 1 to Ontario’s doctors.

“Sadly today is a day that is becoming all too common in Ontario. Today the Wynne-Liberal’s slash funding to physicians services again,” said Leader Patrick Brown. “Today the Liberals cut another 235 million dollars from patient care. That’s over 800 million dollars cut this year alone.”

These cuts come at a time when, the number of new patients in Ontario grows by 140,000 every year as the population grows and ages, and an estimated 800,000 Ontarians already don’t have doctors. Many doctors have threatened to leave the province to work in other jurisdictions. These short-sighted cuts to physician services will result in longer wait-times and reduce the access to care for Ontario’s patients.

“How does the Premier explain this to a single working mother forced to sit in an ER waiting room all night because she can’t get a doctor for her child or access to a walk-in clinic?”