On a daily basis, my office receives emails and phone calls from constituents about the health care system, from doctor shortages to excessive wait times in the ER, and about this government’s Bill 7, More Beds, Better Care Act, demanding public hearings take place.

Bryan sent me an email and asked me to get his story out there, because he says he’s not alone. His daughter is a registered nurse with over 30 years’ experience, and she has seen the health care system crumble. Bryan is an 82-year-old senior. His doctor has just retired. He signed up with Health Care Connect, and all he was offered were phone numbers to call doctors’ offices in hopes that they were accepting patients. He couldn’t get through to speak to doctors and fill out applications, and he has heard nothing. He is being forced to monitor his own health—blood pressure, arranging blood samples to check cholesterol, and, as a cancer survivor, his blood count. He is attending an urgent care clinic just to have his prescriptions filled. He also has a pacemaker, and—lucky for him—he’s monitoring by downloading an app. Bryan has been living in London for 51 years, and he feels like a senior who has been cast out in an open boat. This is beyond shameful.

It’s time to fix the health care system, and the NDP has put forth solutions.

Will this government finally agree to reinstate the Practice Ready Assessment Program for internationally trained doctors and nurses, and repeal Bill 124 to give health care workers the pay and incentives and respect they deserve? Yes or no?

There’s this beautiful community in Nickel Belt called Gogama. They are about an hour and a half south of Timmins, and about two and a half hours north of Sudbury. The only access for the good people of Gogama to our health care system is through a nursing station. The nursing station has been there for decades, giving all of the residents of Gogama—I must tell you, though, that over 60% of them are over the age of 65, and they gain access to our health care system through the nursing stations.

Unfortunately, tomorrow, September 1, the nursing station will close. They were given notice that the nursing station would close on September 1, which means that all means of access to health care will stop.

I have approached the Minister of Health to see what can be done to make sure that the people of Gogama continue to have access to a full-time nurse practitioner in their community so that they have what we call equity of access.

Do we do a double lung transplant in Gogama? No, we don’t. But we need a full-time nurse practitioner working in Gogama so that the people of Gogama can gain access to the health care system.

I was talking to Dan Mantha yesterday. He needs to go to a walk-in clinic in order to gain access, an hour away from his home.

The minister has to get on this file. She has to sign a new agreement so the nursing station stays open.