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Gélinas to Liberals: Protect our front-line health care workers

Nickel Belt MPP says hospital overcrowding is at the root of the problem
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NDP Health critic MPP France Gélinas demanded on Nov. 23 that the Liberal government start protecting front-line health care workers in hospitals who have been facing increasing levels of violence in the workplace. (File)

NDP Health critic MPP France Gélinas demanded on Nov. 23 that the Liberal government start protecting front-line health care workers in hospitals who have been facing increasing levels of violence in the workplace.

Gélinas says that these increasing levels of violence against health care workers is largely due to Liberal government budget freezes that have led to an overcrowding crisis in Ontario hospitals.

“I wrote to the premier in July 2015, asking this government to take action to protect workers in our health care system. But two-and-a-half years later, we see that this premier continues to let health care workers, patients and their families down,” said Gélinas.

The Ontario Council of Hospital Unions released a poll showing that violence against health care workers is getting worse, not better. 

Two out of every three frontline health care workers report being physically assaulted in the last year, where 83 per cent were verbally abused, and nearly half of the health care workers surveyed were sexually harassed or assaulted.

Gélinas said the tense situation in overcrowded hospitals, and staff working without the support they need are contributing factors in the violence.

“Why is this government ignoring the violence inside our hospitals?” said Gélinas. “The premier has squeezed our hospital funding, creating an overcrowding and hallway medicine crisis and resulting in cuts to the levels of frontline health care staff like nurses, making the problem of violence in the workplace much worse.”

Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath has called for a moratorium on the firing of any more frontline hospital staff and has said that an NDP government would fund hospitals, at a minimum, to the rate of inflation, population growth, and to meet the unique needs of communities.

“You can’t fix this problem with more budget cuts and freezes,” said Gélinas. 

“The people of Ontario need a government and a premier who understand that properly funding hospitals will save lives – it will mean no more medical treatment on stretchers in hallways, shorter waits in the ER and it will help every health care worker go home safe to their family at the end of every shift. This should be a priority for the Liberals – clearly, it’s not.”


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