On June 12th Ontarians will vote in the provincial election.
Here is what the party’s have to say about healthcare
Like so many families throughout Ontario, my own has had to rely on our public health care system and I’ve been awed by the compassion and care we received from the nurses, doctors and other health care professionals on the front line. I am very grateful.
And I am resolved to ensure future generations can count on this same high quality of care. Nothing threatens our publicly funded health care system more than Ontario’s debt. For too long, politicians have pretended we can keep spending money we don’t have and it will never impact the quality of care we receive.
The larger Ontario’s debt becomes, the more money we are forced to pay in interest and the less money is left to hire nurses, purchase MRIs or afford cutting-edge medication that Ontario patients need.
That is why our Million Jobs Plan is committed to balancing Ontario’s budget while protecting health care funding, and protecting the number of nurses and doctors providing frontline care.
By balancing the budget and creating more jobs we will put our front-line health care services on a stable, sustainable footing so that our children and grandchildren will have access to the same health care system that we count on today. Each new job we create will, in turn, provide additional revenue that helps us hire more nurses, invest in new medical equipment and improve patient care.
I have also long believed that decisions affecting your family’s care are best made by health care professionals, not anonymous health care bureaucrats who have never seen a patient. We think your nurses, doctors, community care organizations and hospitals know best what care is needed.
Our plan will also put a new focus on treating chronic diseases as the leading health challenge of our time. Diabetes, heart disease or Alzheimer’s cannot be treated by a single trip to the hospital. Instead, we will ensure all of the doctors and nurses caring for people with serious chronic conditions work together on long-term comprehensive plans guided by compassion and common sense.
We will also move health closer to home by expanding access to home care and long-term care for seniors or people suffering from long-term illnesses. We want seniors to live healthy and fulfilled lives and that includes allowing them to stay in their own homes as long as they can.
Additionally, we will update the scope of practice for pharmacists, nurse practitioners and other professionals. This will allow treatment where it is most convenient and beneficial for patients.
Our plan will make mental health care a priority. For too long mental health has been an afterthought in our health care system. A mental illness is as much a health care issue as an illness anywhere else in the body. We will take the fragmented services now offered and replace them with a comprehensive approach to help some of our most vulnerable citizens.
And our plan will help keep our children active. Children should get at least 45 minutes of physical activity every weekday, whether through school-based activities or after-school sports. Active kids are healthier, happier and do better in schools. Active healthy kids also become usually become active healthy adults which will reduce the strain on our health care system.
Ontario’s world class health care system was built on a foundation of looking to the future while making smart, responsible choices today. I want to ensure the high-quality publicly funded health care system that was there for our parents and is there for us, will also be there for our children. That’s what our Million Jobs Plan will do.
Sincerely,
Christine Elliott
Deputy Leader, Ontario PC Party
Ontario PC Critic for Health and Long-Term Care
Ontario PC Candidate- Whitby-Oshawa
Dear health care workers on the front lines:
I am writing today to thank you for your incredible dedication to the people of Ontario. Without your hard work, passion and talents, there would be no one to care for our loved ones when they are ill and at their most disadvantaged. Our system has, no doubt, improved in the past decade but I and the Green Party of Ontario believe we can support you further in your mission to improve the quality of life for all Ontarians.
Our current infrastructure is not meeting the needs of patients. Hospitals in the Scarborough area have operating rooms that were built in the 50s. Without appropriate investments, these operating rooms cannot be renovated and equipped with the technologies demanded by today’s advanced procedures. Rather than shunting money towards brand new brick and mortar structures, the Green Party of Ontario advocates that we revitalize the hospitals that we currently have in order to provide patients with the advanced procedures they require in their own communities.
Similarly, we need to invest in the front line workers that staff these hospitals. There are hospitals across Ontario that are not functioning at full capacity. They are closing emergency rooms, operating rooms and beds due to staffing shortages. If we want to tackle wait times for important diagnostic investigations and procedures, we need to staff our hospitals appropriately. Ontario has a wealth of underemployed and highly trained nurses, physicians and allied health professionals that should be put to better use. The Green Party of Ontario wants to increase health care staffing to increase the efficiency of our health care system.
While we can improve upon our existing hospitals, we do need to create a significant number of nursing home beds in the next 10 years. Many patients that occupy beds in expensive ($1000+) acute care hospital beds no longer require acute medical or surgical care. The elderly and disabled are often stranded because their families cannot safely care for them at home and there are no available public nursing home or rehab beds. They exist in a purgatory devoid of the comforts of home and the appropriate rehab they require to convalesce appropriately. Over time, they develop complications related to their prolonged hospital stays (e.g. nosocomial infections, DVTs and PEs, pressure ulcers) which can lead to both increased morbidity and mortality. The Green Party of Ontario supports the doubling of nursing home beds in the next 10 years. These beds will allow our elderly to convalesce while freeing up acute care beds for those waiting for admission to a medical or surgical bed.
While we prepare for a dramatic increase in our elderly, we also need to implement strategies that will promote health and prevent illness. The Green Party of Ontario proposes a Guaranteed Annual Income to eradicate poverty in Ontario. By offering people a livable wage from the outset, our poor will be able to afford food, shelter, childcare and an education. They will raise themselves out of poverty and bring with them, successive generations. As their socioeconomic status rises, the risk of obesity, medical and mental health conditions, addictions and crime/abuse fall. The moral and financial rewards will be outstanding.
The Green Party of Ontario believes that a better health care system is on the horizon and with your help, we can make that happen sooner rather than later.
Sincerely,
Mike Schreiner
Leader of the Green Party of Ontario
Ontario Green Party Candidate – Guelph
The Ontario Liberal Party is the only party with a plan for health care. We’re ensuring families get the right care, in the right place, at the right time to create a sustainable system for generations to come.
Since 2003, Ontario Liberals have worked with our health care partners to build a quality health care system for all. We understand the critical role our hospitals and health care professionals play each day in the lives of Ontarians. That’s why we have hired 20,500 more nurses and 4,910 new doctors, while increasing hospital funding by more than 50 percent. By working together, Ontario now has the shortest surgical wait times in Canada and 2.1 million more Ontarians have a family doctor. These achievements are a testament to the dedicated, passionate, and hard-working health care professionals across Ontario.
We know there is much more to do and we will continue to build on the gains we have made by working together. If re-elected, we will provide a primary care guarantee to every Ontarian, invest $270 million more in home and community care, provide better mental health supports, and develop a strategy to help more patients receive their end-of-life care at home.
Our health care professionals are the foundation of our health care system and we value the tremendous contribution they make to our province each day. That’s why our plan will also increase wages for Personal Support Workers and expand the roles and responsibilities of nurses.
Our publicly funded hospitals are centres of excellence and provide high quality, timely care to Ontarians when they need it most. Our plan will invest over $11.4 billion in hospital expansions over the next 10 years, whilecontinuing to bring down wait times in key areas of health services. We are also committed to cappingparking fees for those who must visit our hospitals frequently. We are determined to make Ontario the healthiest place in North America to grow up and grow old.
Unfortunately, the NDP and the PCs rejected all of these measures when they said no to the Liberal Plan and voted against the budget. The Hudak PC proposal to slash 100,000 jobs would put Ontario’s economy at risk and plunge the province back into a recession. Fewer people at work will result in less money invested back into the economy, leading to thousands of layoffs of highly-skilled workers and would undermine the progress made in health care.
Andrea Horwath’s NDP put Ontario’s economic recovery from the last recession at risk when they chose not to support the 2014 Liberal Budget, which would have made important investments in health care. Instead of backing record investments in health care, Horwath sided with Tim Hudak’s cuts
That’s not what Ontario Liberals stand for. On June 12th, Ontarians have a clear choice between building the province up with a strong Liberal plan or dividing this province through cuts to our most valued services.
As long as I am Premier, health providers in Ontario will be treated as respected partners in fulfilling our most important role of government. Looking at everything we have already accomplished together, I have no doubt that health care’s best days—indeed, our province’s best days—lie ahead.
Kathleen Wynne
Leader of the Ontario Liberal Party
Health care has always been a key priority for the NDP, across Canada, and remains so today. Ontario’s NDP has a plan to focus on the fundamentals and deliver relief to Ontario’s families looking for change that makes sense on health care.
A health care issue that comes up in large and small communities across the province is home care. The Ontario NDP understands that the bulk of home care is delivered by family members, many of whom are struggling with financial and emotional stress from caring for aging parents and their own children.
Our Caregiver Tax Credit will offer these families relief. Under our practical plan, anyone caring for a dependent at home will be able to claim $1,275 annually. This tax credit, which will help keep families together while saving on costly long-term care, is fully refundable, not income-based and supplements credits or supports that families receive through other programs. Our guarantee that every Ontarian will have access to home care within five days of approval will provide patients with quality care in comfort and dignity. Combined with our plan to create 1,400 additional long-term care beds, this will eliminate the long-term care crisis.
Of course, home care is not the only issue I hear about. For many Ontarians, a visit to the ER is their first point of contact with the health care system when something changes in their health. No one should spend anxious hours in ERs just to find out if their loved one is going to be okay. The Liberals promised to reduce wait times but once again, failed to deliver.
Ontarians can trust an NDP government to keep our promise to cut ER wait times in half with solutions that make sense. We will hire 250 nurse practitioners to ease ER wait times. St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto has successfully introduced its Fast Track program and nurse practitioners each treat about 350 patients per month – dropping ER wait times by half. As well, since many people go to the ER because they don’t have access to a primary care practitioner, our plan to create 50 new 24-hour family health clinics will relieve pressure on hospitals.
To address the rural-urban health care gap, an NDP government will attract as many as 250 new physicians to underserviced rural communities with a medical school debt-forgiveness program, which will forgive up to $20,000 of debt per year of service.
These practical, fully costed measures will ensure that families have access to quality care, when and where they need it. The Liberals failed to deliver on just three promises from the last budget and cannot be trusted to deliver this time. Ontario’s families know that the NDP can be trusted to deliver on our commitments. The NDP’s solutions that invest in people’s priorities not scandal and waste make sense.
Sincerely,
Monique Taylor
NDP Candidate – Hamilton Mountain
