Let’s be clear: It was the Conservative government that privatized home care and privatized long-term care. And let’s also be clear: We know that under this Conservative government’s watch, 5,000 of our seniors—parents, grandparents, mothers-in-law—have died in long-term care, in for-profit homes. Just last week, Madam Speaker, 40 died—in the last two weeks.

Knowing this, do we feel it’s okay to give medical information of patients—seniors—to long-term-care providers without their consent, which is in Bill 7?

Mr. Speaker, we can’t keep doing the same old thing over and over again, pouring billions of dollars into the health system, and expect a different result. We need new solutions to old problems that the Liberals and NDP created. The opposition will always find reasons to say no. They will keep defending the status quo, saying no for the sake of saying no. We refuse to accept the status quo. The opposition want people who should be in long-term care in hospital beds. Hospital beds weren’t made for long-term-care patients. And what’s happening is it’s clogging up the emergency departments, delaying surgeries. These problems are decades in the making, created by years of refusal to act under the Liberals and NDP. The Liberals and NDP, who caused the problem, are now complaining about the solution. Their solution is to do absolutely nothing, to change nothing.

The opposition will always say no to building more hospitals, no to hiring more nurses, no to building more hospital beds. They will say no to shorter surgery wait times, no to making the system better. The Liberals and NDP built 611 long-term-care beds. We’re building 31,000 new long-term-care beds, investing $4.9 billion, hiring more than 27,000 long-term-care staff—

Good morning, Speaker. My question is to the Premier. Earlier this month, the London Health Sciences Centre was forced to close their world-leading epilepsy monitoring unit due to critical staffing shortages. The unit being closed and a lack of access to EEGs means even more delayed surgeries. Think of the impacts to health, mental health and the quality of life of patients suffering from seizures.

When will this government admit the crisis in health care is real and address the staffing shortage that they created?

People on waiting lists are waiting even longer and it is because of the disrespectful policies of this government. Epilepsy patients, like Sarah, live in fear wondering when their next episode is going to happen.

Clearly, the Minister of Health wants to peddle privatization as a cure all for the crisis Conservative cuts have created. Overworked and underappreciated by this government, then Bill 124? It’s a perfect storm. Will this government finally admit they got it wrong, repeal Bill 124, and finally treat health care professionals with respect, yes or no?

My question is to the Minister of Health. You announced the creation of the operating room assist position at Hamilton Health Sciences, but we’re hearing a concerning story from registered nurses. Registered nurses at Hamilton Health Sciences caution that replacing highly trained scrub nurses with ORAs puts patient safety at risk in the operating room. Patients don’t want someone in their OR who is unable to intervene when unexpected things happen during surgery. When a patient is coding in the operating room, there isn’t time to wait for a nurse. Delays can be the difference between life and death. With only 22 hours of online learning, two practice labs and two weeks of practical experience, ORAs do not have the same expert knowledge and specialized training as highly skilled scrub nurses.

My question: Will you stop cuts to nursing at the cost of patient care and require Hamilton Health Sciences to keep nurses in the critical scrub nurse role?

I agree that we need to address the nursing crisis, but you are compromising the standard of surgical care for patients to save money. You need to invest and protect the scrub nurse position to ensure patients get the care they need and deserve. Without proper standards of care, patients may have a higher risk of unexpected complications, which could result in multiple surgeries and, in the worst-case scenario, even lose their lives.

My question to the Minister of Health: Will you address the nursing crisis by ensuring that the right care is provided at the right time by the right provider and stop removing scrub nurses from that critical role in the operating room?

My question is to the Premier. I was recently written a letter from one of my constituents. They actually provided, quite honestly, some very sad news. They received some communication from their medical health care provider, their primary doctor, who is actually asking them to find a new doctor after 17 years of being their primary physician. What the doctor said to the patient was that his workload is untenable, it’s unmanageable, and that he has to reduce the workload. So out of a randomized system that’s set out by the College of Physicians and Surgeons, they’ve selected 262 patients—anonymized—and they sent out the same letter to those patients telling them to find a new doctor in their neighbourhood. That represents a reduction of 40% of patients in that clinic now.

My constituent went about asking community members for referrals and none of them were able to help them. The medical care professionals said to them, “We’re not taking new patients.”

What will this government do, what will the Premier do, to stop this dumping of patients by medical professionals because they can’t manage the workload? What can you do for my constituent and the—

What is the government going to do to address the current health care crisis? What do I say—what do we all say—to this particular constituent or to an Ontarian who is looking for a family doctor? What do we say to the other families that are looking for primary care professionals? We are in a health care crisis, and I don’t think this government is taking it seriously. We need help; our constituents need help. What can you do to help them today?

It is, of course, very disturbing when medical doctors, for workload or for retirement, have to make that difficult decision and share with their patients that they are decreasing or retiring in the practice.

However, as a government, we have been investing. We have an additional 400 doctors practising in the province of Ontario now that we did not have. We have worked with the College of Physicians and Surgeons to say, “If there are internationally trained doctors who want to practise in the province of Ontario, let’s expedite those licences.” We’re doing the work here to make sure that individuals have access to the appropriate care where they need it.

I hope the member opposite would have ensured that their constituent is aware of Health Care Connect, to make sure that the matching between patients and doctors has already occurred. But there are opportunities through community health clinics, through family health clinics, that they make sure that those assets and resources are in their constituents’ hands.

I sincerely appreciate the question from the minister, and I’ll begin by saying as a physician that every member has a right to patient-physician confidentiality. I admire you for acknowledging me publicly, but it is my pleasure to serve both in a political capacity and, of course, if my services are ever required, in a clinical capacity as well.

One of the things that I hope to bring forward as a physician in this Legislature is the fact that I have a unique privilege: When serving in the emergency department, my patients tell me things that they don’t necessarily feel comfortable sharing with other people, because of stigma, because of things that have happened to them in the past. I hope that when I rise in this chamber, I can amplify those voices and tell those stories, and I would humbly ask if you would join me in listening, in helping me to amplify those voices as well, so that we can fight for every single person in this province, not just the ones who can be the most vocal. For me, that is one thing I would hope for.

A close friend of mine shared with me an account just last week of a young woman who had passed out, and so she came to the emergency department. It costs hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars just to register someone in the emergency department, to ensure that it’s adequately staffed and to pay for the services that are provided. Ultimately, after the consultation was complete, the reason that she had passed out was because she hadn’t been able to eat that morning. She couldn’t afford to do it.

Stories like this remind me that up-front investment in things like—sir, you spoke about food insecurity earlier. Investments in things like housing, in food, in making sure that disabled people can access the services that they need, can have profound and massive impacts on their long-term quality of—