QUEEN’S PARK — Ontario NDP Health Care critic France Gélinas said the Official Opposition is horrified that Health Minister Sylvia Jones suggested to media multiple times Wednesday that health care privatization is under consideration by the Doug Ford government.
Reporter: Just to be clear, there’s not more privatization coming?
Jones: I’m saying that all options are on the table. I’m saying there’s innovation and opportunity here in Ontario and we will explore it.
“Privatizing health care would be a disaster for people’s health. It would mean losing nurses, doctors and PSWs leaving the public system to work privately, making the health care crisis even worse. I could mean that people are forced to pay out of pocket, or wait longer for care,” said Gélinas.
“The health care crisis we are in is due to gross underfunding and cuts by the Conservative government and the Liberals before them. The way to fix it is for the Ford government to finally answer the pleas of overworked and burnt out health care workers, health experts and patients — and invest in recruiting, returning, retaining and respecting health care workers.
“We are now deeply concerned that the reason this Conservative government is refusing to act on the health care crisis is because they’d rather just privatize health care," Gélinas said.
“The NDP will never stop working for robust public health care. This means fixing the compounding crises of long waits, rolling closures of entire hospital departments and hallway medicine with solutions including repealing Bill 124, increasing mental health support for health care workers, protecting health care workers against violence and expediting the accreditation of tens of thousands of internationally trained doctors and nurses.”