This question is for the Premier.In July, I shared an internal memo from Toronto Western Hospital, frantically trying to keep their emergency department open. They narrowly avoided that closure that time, but they were just one of 25 hospitals across this province facing emergency room closures on a single weekend. From our smallest community health centres to our busiest urban hospitals, our system is being pushed to the breaking point while this government’s budget remains status quo. Speaker, to the Premier: How many more ERs and urgent care centres have to close before he finally admits this is a crisis?

Speaker, can the minister explain what she considers acceptable for a child to get emergency care? Is it 19 hours? Is it 11 hours? How is that even remotely acceptable?

I had an ER nurse from my community tell me just yesterday that the ICU they work in is at full capacity with only half the staff to care for a full roster of patients.

How can the Premier look our exhausted and demoralized nurses in the eye—those health care workers who are desperately ringing the alarm on staffing shortages—and tell them that Bill 124 is here to stay?

It’s our health care workers who are putting forward solutions, and it’s the government that’s refusing to implement any of the solutions that they’re asking for.

This past weekend, Montfort and Carleton Place hospitals needed to close their emergency departments due to lack of staff. The Queensway Carleton Hospital, which has only been able to keep their ER open because of some creative staffing arrangements, has patients waiting up to 12 hours to be seen.

These wait times and closures are unacceptable in Ottawa and across the province. What is the government’s plan to ensure that Ottawa-area hospitals have the resources they need to keep ERs open and to provide patients with care in a reasonable amount of time?

We talk about preparing for, and we have done that. Ottawa is about to see the largest hospital expansion in the history of Ontario. We have made that commitment. We are working towards those solutions because we’ve worked with the organizations, the OMA.

We want to make sure that when people want to see their family doc, the family doc is available to see them, so we have expanded a program that allows them and funds them to see patients in the evening and on the weekends. Those types of quantitative, real solutions are going to make a difference. We are seeing people get the health care they need, where they want it, when they need it.

There is no doubt that when a hospital has to shut an emergency for four hours, for a shift, it is very challenging for the community. But we work with partners to make sure it is as seamless as possible and patients’ lives are protected.

Specifically related to your question, I think that you have already written me on that. We will look into it to make sure that due diligence has happened in that particular situation. But I want to reassure the people of Ontario and the people in the House that we are making those investments in Ottawa, in Windsor, in Niagara, in Brampton, to make sure that we have a health care system that is robust and prepared to protect the people of Ontario.

Again, Speaker, I will reinforce that it is deeply disturbing when we have an emergency department that must close, whether that’s for four hours, a shift or a weekend. We work very closely with Ontario Health, with hospital CEOs and with management to make sure that they have explored every option to ensure that that does not happen. When it does, we have safeguards in place that include making sure that first responders—paramedics—understand where the redirect is, often within 15 minutes of the nearest hospital. We want to make sure that we build the capacity, and we will continue to do that.

As the member opposite knows, I’ve spoken to and I have directed the nursing college of Ontario and the College of Physicians and Surgeons to act quickly to make sure that every possible individual in the province of Ontario who wants to work in health care has that opportunity.

My question is for the Minister of Health. This summer, we have seen unprecedented levels of pressure placed on our hospitals like nothing I’ve seen in my career. Emergency departments, intensive care units and other critical services are closed due to severe staffing shortages. Nothing on this scale has ever been seen before in our province.

Imagine, Mr. Speaker, that you or someone you love had a heart attack or a stroke. Imagine that you are a mother and your newborn child suddenly seizes before you. And if that isn’t bad enough, imagine now that all of this happens in a community that just lost its emergency department. This is the reality for too many Ontarians this summer, and yet we’ve all heard the minister’s comments.

Speaker, through you, I ask: Can the Minister of Health please finally provide her assessment and explain why she doesn’t think that the current situation in our hospitals is a crisis?

My question is to the Premier. The Minister of Health said it would be “completely inappropriate” to say our health care system is in crisis. But, right now in Hamilton health care officials describe the situation as increasingly precarious. Both Hamilton General and the Juravinski are running over 120% patient capacity, forced to pay double just to keep emergency rooms open, and code zero events, where no ambulances are available to respond, continue to rise.

Speaker, I ask: How bad is too bad before this government will acknowledge this crisis?

My question to the minister, to the Premier: With Ontario nurses here in the House, why do you continue to deny the reality of the crisis in our health care system?