The only thing outrageous about Doug Ford’s comments about vets and MRIs is the problem it exposes with our system. It is easier for anyone in Ontario to get an MRI for their cat than their kid.
Earlier this week, Ford was visiting the King Animal Hospital, a sprawling facility that looks after everything from small pets to horses. They have x-ray, ultrasound, CT and MRI machines for your pet, even scanning equipment for horses standing up.
As Ford was speaking at their event to showcase the facility, he mentioned how Health Minister Sylvia Jones was there.
“We know where we can send the overflow patients now for MRIs and CAT scans and everything else,” Ford said.
It was clearly a joke with Ford laughing as he said it but no matter, the opposition pounced to denounce the premier. Ford’s comments were at times called cold, callous and corrupt.
“Doug Ford and his politicians are dismantling our healthcare system and giving it over to folks like Galen Weston to make more billions off,” NDP Leader Marit Stiles said.
Stiles opposes any changes to Ontario’s health system including allowing people to go to the pharmacy instead of the doctor’s office to get treatment for minor ailments like pink eye. Since Weston owns Shoppers Drug Mart, Stiles calls this part of Ford’s plan to enrich his friends rather than making it easier for average Ontario residents to get the care they need without clogging up doctors offices.
Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie isn’t much better, saying that his real priority is “His rich friends in private, for-profit care, not you or your family.”
Really?
Do Stiles and Crombie always have to be so over the top?
There are backlogs in health care, something Ford said he would fix and hasn’t but we’ve also added 2.2 million people over the last six years. That massive increase in population is thanks to the out-of-control immigration policies of the NDP-Liberal coalition in Ottawa.
It’s hard to keep up with expanding health care when the federal government’s policies see Ontario’s population grow by 16%.
Instead of acknowledging that or Ford’s many reforms to allow faster access to care, the Liberals point to the closing down of emergency rooms as proof Ford is starving health care.
In fiscal year 2017-18, the last year the Liberals were in power they spent $55.6 billion on health and long term care. In fiscal year 2022-23 the Ford government spent $74.2 billion on those same services.
That amounts to a 33% increase in spending, a rate of increase above both inflation and population growth combined.
Part of the reason for emergency rooms being shut down in Ontario is that there is a shortage of health workers across Canada and even around the world. The Trudeau government acknowledged that with an announcement in Mississaugua last year talking about their plans to deal with the shortage nationally.
The World Health Organization says that globally there will be a shortfall of 10 million health workers by 2030.
This is not an Ontario problem; it is a national and international problem that affects Ontario. The Ford government is trying to recruit internationally and in other parts of Canada, but recruiters from other jurisdictions are also here.
To alleviate the shortage of MRI and other diagnostic services, they are opening up the ability for private and community clinics to offer services hospitals currently can’t. This process is ongoing, but new facilities should be opened within the year.
That very idea is opposed by the NDP and Liberals as privatization even though patients wouldn’t need to pay out of pocket, they would simply present their health card.
Marit Stiles and Bonnie Crombie like the current system where it’s easier to get an MRI for your cat than your kid. They just don’t like that Ford joked about it and showed the ridiculousness of our system.