The Cuts Don't Match The Rhetoric

In Ontario, health care is a mess. Bob Hepburn writes:

As he launches a major campaign-style road show this week that will see him travel nearly 5,000 kilometres across the province this summer, Premier Doug Ford will be thanking beleaguered health-care workers for their dedication and hard work during the pandemic.

The truth is that Ford has made the lives of health care workers much more difficult:

Ford’s actions — all made with the clear goal of cutting costs — have produced few, if any positive results, with no money saved, no end to “hallway medicine” and no sign of better days ahead for patients.

And while the bandages Ford has hurriedly thrown at health care since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in February have helped a bit by momentarily easing the bleeding, they have failed to stop the pain inflicted by Ford since his election victory in June, 2018.

There is lots of blood on the floor:

Here are a few of the measures Ford has imposed over the past year that negatively impact health care:

Destabilized public health units by cutting their budgets by $200 million a year, then reversing the cuts without clarity on funding levels beyond the first year;

Set real-dollar budget cuts, with funding for daily hands-on care increased at barely one per cent, below the inflation rate.

Cancelled mandatory annual inspections of long-term-care facilities.

Passed Bill 124, giving health-care workers and other government employees pay raises of just one per cent a year, which is below the inflation rate. This comes after most health-care professionals didn’t get a pay hike in the last 10 years.

Rejected proposals to increase the number of nurses despite being shown the province has the lowest nurse-to-population ratio in Canada.

Passed Bill 175, restructuring the home-care sector in which for-profit private delivery of home care will increase, but with no commitment to increase the number of patients receiving home care or increase the number of visits a patient can receive.

Rejected pleas to increase rehabilitation services for thousands of patients now paying for such needed services out of their own pockets.

Ford's response to COVID has been better than I expected. On the other hand, he has deeply damaged our health care system at precisely the moment when it needed much more support.

Image: The Toronto Star