I’ll remind the members to make their comments through the Chair.

The Deputy Premier and Minister of Health to reply.

My question is to the Premier. More than 65,000 people in the London area do not have a family doctor, including almost one quarter of the patients who go to St. Joseph’s Hospital urgent care, a significant increase since just last year.

Ruqqaiya lives in London West and she has been listed with Health Care Connect for almost two years. She was diagnosed with cancer after an ER visit last year and was treated with surgery. Without a family doctor, she has no choice but to keep going to the ER for all monitoring and follow-up care.

Speaker, whatever this government is doing is not working. How much longer do Londoners have to wait before they will be able to find a family doctor?

Mo Olajide is a nurse and has been looking for a doctor for her family since she moved to London in September 2021. Another constituent emailed me on Friday; she’s pregnant and needs regular care.

Speaker, does this Premier understand that forcing people to go to urgent care or the ER after a serious problem develops is not only costly to the system, but bad for patient health?

Minister of Health.

Supplementary?

The member for Brampton North and the member for Waterloo, if they wish to have a conversation—we’re in the midst of question period, and we still have a few seconds.

We’ll start the clock again. The next question.

The House recessed from 1139 to 1500.

First reading agreed to.

First reading agreed to.