Bruce Grey Owen Sound MPP Bill Walker is calling on the health minister to share the government's plan to increase long term bed capacity across the province.
Walker claims the government does not in fact have a plan to accommodate the 24,000 seniors languishing on the wait list for beds. He doubts there ever was a capacity plan to ensure the current and future needs of our growing senior population is accounted for.
Walker says the government's lack of action has left weary Ontarians caring for aging parents with no support plan.
The wait list is expected to double to 50,000 in the next six years, says Walker, with the sickest and frailest seniors left lying in overcrowded hospitals.
“Everything this government touches ends up in scandal and waste, or a broken promise from Premier Wynne,” he said during Friday's Question Period. “They wasted $8 billion on a flawed eHealth system while frail seniors continue to go without access to a nursing bed. It’s unacceptable.”
Walker was reacting to news that despite promises to redevelop existing beds, and build new one, a plan to allow beds to be built in the Havelock area was rejected even though 2,700 seniors there are on the wait list.
“The premier and her health minister are not doing their job. It’s unacceptable that they have promised new bed capacity but then shut out communities that applied for a license to build them. It’s unconscionable given that everyone has been talking about the baby-boomer generation and the impacts of this demographic for years. Where do they expect our valued seniors to receive care?
“Their inaction is yet another mistake and is going to lead to a crisis, and that’s unacceptable. Ontarians deserve better,” concluded MPP Walker.
