Health care will be the top funding priority for Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak.
Last week he announced that a Progressive Conservative government would, by the end of its first term, increase annual spending in health care by $6.1-billion. Wellington-Halton Hills MPP Ted Arnott said the announcement is good News for the people he is fortunate to represent.
“Tim Hudak’s plan demonstrates his commitment to strengthen and improve health care in Ontario,” he said. “I agree that health funding will need to increase in the coming years to keep up with families’ expectations and needs, citing the high cost of the new technologies and medications.
“At the same time, we must always look for ways to stretch our dollars to the fullest extent. We need to invest in patients and front-line health services – not waste, and not excess administration,” he added.
Hudak’s health care priorities include:
– introducing a rigorous system of patient satisfaction and health outcome measures;
– improving health care for Ontario seniors with 40,000 new and renovated long-term care beds;
– increasing spending in home care, and giving families more control over services;
– bringing more doctors to the communities that need them. Encouraging doctors, nurses, and physician assistants to work collaboratively in under-serviced areas to meet patients’ needs, and increasing residency placements for medical students from Ontario who have training outside Canada and want to return home to practice; and
– getting rid of unnecessary administration and reinvesting that funding into care for patients.
“This plan shows that Tim Hudak is serious about bringing real change that puts patients at the very centre of health care,” said Arnott.
He added that Georgetown Hospital and Groves Memorial Community Hospital, and their respective plans for the future, will continue to have his support. He also highlighted a need to attract more doctors and other health care professionals, as well as his support for the East Wellington Family Health Team, improved ambulance service in eastern part of Wellington County, and improved long-term care.
