Election: Orazietti trashes Tory healthcare plans

NEWS RELEASE

DAVID ORAZIETTI LIBERAL CANDIDATE SAULT STE. MARIE

************************* Orazietti strengthening public health care after years of Tory cuts

SAULT STE. MARIE - Northerners are finally climbing out of the hole dug by the last Conservative government, and can't afford to go backwards with John Tory's scheme which will cut $3 billion, plus another $1.5 billion in still unidentified cuts out of health care, Liberal candidate David Orazietti stated.

"The Conservative government had an opportunity to strengthen and increase access to public health care and instead they chose to fire nurses and ignore our community's need for a new hospital," said Orazietti. "They eliminated 5,000 public hospital beds and cut $557 million from hospitals and saw the number of communities under-serviced by doctors balloon from 63 to 142."

Over the past four years, the Ontario Liberal government has invested significantly in health care for Sault Ste. Marie, including $408 million for the new Sault Area Hospital, $26 million for a new contract with the Group Health Centre - under the previous government they went without one for four years, $35 million for new community health services and $8 million to improve the Northern Health Travel Grant.

The Liberal plan will develop a nurse practitioner clinic to improve primary care access, develop more incentives for physicians to practise in the Sault and add another 100 new medical school spaces to boost physician numbers.

According to the Ontario Medical Association, 500,000 more Ontarians have access to a family doctor.

Ontario Liberals want to continue that progress for another 500,000 Ontarians.

According to the Ontario Physician Human Resources Data Centre, the number of doctors per capita is finally increasing, for the first time since 1995.

Medical school spaces have been expanded by 23 percent and built the Northern Ontario Medical School - the first medical school built in Canada in 30 years.

As a result of this investment of $100 million, 85 new physician medical students are interning in the North, 12 of whom are in Sault Ste. Marie.

How many doctors does a $3 billion cut buy?

How many new medical school spaces do you get with a $3 billion cut?

"These kinds of cuts to health care will undo the progress our government has made to date that is strengthening our public health-care system," said Orazietti. "Our government believes that we need to keep moving forward when it comes to public health care for Northerners."

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