Children’s ICUs at capacity because Ford driving health care workers away

QUEEN’S PARK — NDP Health critic France Gélinas issued the following statement in response to reports that Ontario’s critical care COVID-19 command centre has asked hospitals to place kids 14 and older in adult critical care beds, to accommodate an expected surge in pediatric ICUs:

“The crisis Doug Ford has created in our hospitals is getting worse by the day.

It is deeply distressing that children’s hospitals across Ontario are filled to capacity. No parent in Ontario should have to wait up to 12 hours in the emergency room for their sick child to be treated. Parents deserve the assurance that their child will have access to trained pediatric health care workers, in a hospital specialized in pediatric care.

The Ford government is driving health care workers away, and children and families are paying for it.

The NDP is urging Doug Ford to drop his unfair, wage-capping Bill 124 and invest in a massive recruitment and retention strategy in health care, to give frontline health care workers the wages, incentives and respect they deserve.

Ford must take action to end the crisis in our hospitals and ensure that our children get the intensive care they need.”