| "People are furious about the
ads, especially seniors," London Centre MPP Marion Boyd said yesterday. "They
just blow their stack when that government voice says health care has never been
better." Boyd said some emergency wards in Ontario were in crisis
in January 1998 and the provincial government promised help in April 1998. But she
said hospitals waited until November 1998 to get less than half the promised funding and
the rest isn't expected until April of this year. |
By Hank Daniszewski -- Free Press Reporter The unprecedented
crisis at emergency wards in London hospitals last week sparked angry calls to the offices
of London MPPs. London Centre MPP Marion Boyd, the NDP health critic, said many callers were especially upset because the crisis occurred while the provincial government is running TV ads, at public expense, boasting of increased health-care spending. "People are furious about the ads, especially seniors," Boyd said yesterday. "They just blow their stack when that government voice says health care has never been better." Last Wednesday night, all three adult emergency wards in London were on critical-care bypass status because of staff and bed shortages and wouldn't accept even life-threatening cases. It was the first time the three wards had stopped taking patients at the same time. The development left ambulance paramedics scrambling to find an emergency ward willing to take a woman seriously injured in a traffic accident on Highbury Avenue. An ambulance supervisor insisted the woman be admitted to a city hospital instead of going outside London for treatment. The victim was taken to the closest emergency ward -- the University campus of London Health Sciences Centre. Boyd said some emergency wards in Ontario were in crisis in January 1998 and the provincial government promised help in April 1998. But she said hospitals waited until November 1998 to get less than half the promised funding and the rest isn't expected until April of this year. "This is a government that has perfected the art of announcing funding to allay everybody's fear and then not delivering that funding to the institutions that are trying to care for us." Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty accuses the government of triggering London's emergency ward crisis by slashing hospital staff. "Mike Harris created this problem when he cut $800 million from our hospitals. He has money for health-care ads but no money to hire more nurses to take the pressure off our emergency rooms," McGuinty said. MPP Bob Wood, the Tory member for London South, said his office also received calls about the emergency ward problems. "I know people are quite concerned about this issue," Wood said yesterday. "Health care is top priority for the people of this province." But he said the government is trying to get at the root of the problem by creating 20,000 new long-term care beds to free up more space in hospitals for acute-care patients. The government has also committed $225 million to emergency services to solve the immediate problems, he said. The Tory government inherited a mess in health care and most people agree a fundamental restructuring was needed, Wood said. "The previous government used Band-Aid solutions. If this situation had been addressed five or 10 years ago, we wouldn't have this problem." Jon Dreyer, chief of emergency services at the London Health Sciences Centre, said last week's emergency ward crisis was caused by confusion and the hospital is taking steps to ensure it doesn't happen again. Last year, the centre announced a plan to expand and upgrade emergency wards at the Westminster and University campuses while older emergency wards at the South Street campus and St. Joseph's Health Centre were shut down. Work has begun on the expanded Westminster emergency ward, but the government has not provided funding to begin construction of the new $7-million ward at the University campus in the city's north end. Meanwhile, severe overcrowding in its emergency ward forced the largest hospital in Laval, Que., to issue a public plea yesterday afternoon urging the ailing to delay any visit to the hospital for at least 48 hours. About 75 people were awaiting treatment in emergency ward corridors -- more than double the usual capacity. The ward is equipped with only 36 stretchers. The hospital's news release described medical staff as overworked and "exhausted." With files from Canadian Press |
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Marion Boyd, MPP London Centre
marionboyd@home.com