For
Immediate Release
November 8, 2004
MPPs
Sterling and Baird Slam McGuinty Government for denying West-end Ottawa
Residents Access to Community Health Care Centres
The McGuinty government’s failure to include west-end Ottawa in an announcement of new Community Health Centres is the straw that will break the city’s health care back, MPPs Norm Sterling and John Baird charged today. The MPPs are demanding that the government revisit its decision immediately.
When Health and Long Term Care Minister George Smitherman announced 10 new Community Health Centres (CHCs) in the province late Friday, area residents were shocked to learn a well-developed proposal for Ottawa’s west-end was absent from the list.
Sterling and Baird say the decision to keep Ottawa out of the CHC expansion is the latest blow to the city’s health care services. The decision comes as the McGuinty government refuses to provide adequate funding for Queensway-Carleton and other local hospitals.
“Mr. McGuinty has justified starving Ottawa-area hospitals of cash by suggesting community services are being put in place to divert demand from these vital institutions,” Sterling said. “This has now been exposed as hogwash. The Premier’s failure to deliver adequate support for either our hospitals or our community care services constitutes his cruelest broken promise. The consequences will be longer waiting times and reduced access to care.”
Baird and Sterling said that while the Premier has moved to raise taxes for Ottawa residents, he has dramatically reduced their services.
“Ontarians have been hit hard with higher taxes under the pretense that the government would improve health care,” said Baird. “But they aren’t seeing any benefit. In fact, they are paying more and getting much less in return.”
The Western Ottawa Community Resource Centre developed a proposal for a new CHC for the rapidly growing West-end. Sterling and Baird had taken the proposal directly to Health Minister George Smitherman arguing that with its rapidly growing population, this area should top the priority list when it comes to expanded health care services.
Community Health Centres are designed to identify and address the major health problems in the communities they serve. Services include public health education, ambulatory care, acute and specialized treatment, long-term care and rehabilitative services.
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For more information, please call:
Norm Sterling, MPP: (613) 253-1171
John Baird, MPP: (613) 828-2020