I’m glad to present this petition to support access to spine care in Ontario. There are many people suffering from complex spinal problems that require spinal surgery, including things like scoliosis, that could be debilitating for people. We have surgeons that have the skill, that have the knowledge to do those surgeries, but they face many barriers. The biggest one is that they cannot get access to our operating rooms in our different hospitals because of how the hospital is compensated: paid by procedure. Surgeries take precedence because they bring more money to our hospitals that are always stretched for dollars.

Some of those people, including children, have been waiting for years to have those surgeries. This is not fair. They deserve equitable access. So I support them in their call for this petition, will affix my name to it and ask Rhys to bring it to the Clerk.

More and more data are showing us that although the government pays for those surgeries, they pay more if it’s done in a private clinic. Plus, many private clinics will have add-ons where people need to pay thousands of dollars to gain access to those surgeries. They also show that other jurisdictions that have introduced private clinics for routine surgery did not decrease the backlog in hospitals—that Ontario hospitals have many operating rooms sitting empty that could do those surgeries if the money was to flow to our hospitals rather than to the private clinics. So they petition the government to make sure that all medically necessary surgeries are allocated exclusively to public hospitals.

I support this petition, will affix my name to it and ask page Charlise to bring it to the Clerk.

The petition is about improving the care for people with amyloidosis. This is a disease that affects many people in Ontario. It is an incurable disease, but there are new treatments that are finally available to help people who suffer with that disease.

They ask for the Legislative Assembly to make sure that Ontario follows suit with other provinces: to make the diagnosis more seamless and make the treatments that are available also available to people who live in Ontario. They would like March to be recognized as an awareness month for amyloidosis, so that more people know about it and receive the treatment that they need.

I support this petition, will affix my name to it and ask my good page Charlise to bring it to the Clerk.