London 'ground zero' for health-care problems: Ontario NDP

When speaking anywhere in the province, Ontario NDPleader Andrea Horwath will spotlight London Ont., as "the ground zero for the problems in our health-care system," which she plans to reform.

"I use London as an example," she said during a town hall on Tuesday nightabout a system that has previously generateddebate over staff shortages, lack of mental health care and long hospital wait times.

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Several first responders who attended the event, which was organized by the party,were vocal aboutthat city reputation. They made up one portionof the approximately 100 people who showed up.

The town hall was held after the NDP launched on Sunday what it's calling "the biggest campaign" in its history days before the official campaigning period.

Frontline workers speak out

"We're burning out," said Carol Morrison, a frontline worker at a nursing home in London, to the crowd.

"We are working doubles and doubles and doubles We're not able to take vacation, we can't take our statutory holidays How [do we]get more personal support workers into the field? We desperately need them."

"This is unacceptable," said Horwath, who committedto invest $1.2 billion in hospitals across the province. She said she would relieve some financial loans as grants in order to encourage more people to go into full-time health-care jobs.

"We don't have to accept the situation as it stands People don't have to choose between bad and worse," said Horwath.

Another local paramedic spoke out aboutconcerns over bed shortages and long hospital wait times.

Horwathnoted a platform point that introducesa 5.3 per cent increase in hospital funding,followed by annual increases that would commit about $19 billion in funding for hospitals over a 10-year period.

If elected, this plan could alsocreate about 2,000 new hospital beds.

Local concerns

Last year, the province committed to providing an additional 48 hospital beds at the London Health Sciences Centre.

Months later in February, a 71-year-old London man died in the province after waiting in a Mexico hospital to receive care back on home turf.

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That same month, another London man waited more than a week in a U.S. hospital because he was told that abed wasn't available at any of the hospitals in London.

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Horwath reiterated her plans to increase capital spending into the health-care system and to expand the scope of a public inquiry into the safety and in the long-term care homes.

NDP MPPs Teresa Armstrong and Peggy Sattler bothattended the event, which was hosted byTerence Kernaghan, thecandidate for London North Centre.