Provincial measures to cut waitlists and hallway healthcare

By MPP Toby Barrett

To The Haldimand Press

Our health care system, as the phrase ‘hallway health care’ suggests, has been facing capacity issues for many years, and we’ve been hearing examples of that across Haldimand-Norfolk and during debate at Queen’s Park.

We hear so much about our growing population in areas like the GTA, and certainly the rapidly aging population in our area and across rural Ontario.  We’re also looking at an increased number of residents with much more complex needs.

Ontario’s healthcare system does not have the right mix of services. It does not have the right combination of beds or digital tools to be ready for what’s coming.

Problems range from long wait-lists, to poor value for money, and a poor patient experience. Essentially, Ontario’s health care system has been on life support for an extended period of time.

Approximately 1,000 patients are in hospital hallways every day. The average wait time to access a bed in a long-term-care home averages 146 days. This has been a tremendous increase over the last five or six years.