Marit Stiles, Leader of the Ontario NDP, calls a month of healthcare shortages in the province ‘utter chaos.’
Families and healthcare providers are scrambling to find critical supplies like painkillers and sedatives for vulnerable patients receiving care at home, according to a news release.
“Home care patients, their families, caregivers, and health care workers who support them are in a state of panic”, said Stiles. “Patients are being sent to emergency rooms because their supplies have run out, people in palliative care are going without sedatives, and others are turning to Amazon because the government has failed them.”
Stiles asked Health Minister Sylvia Jones about the issue in question period today saying people facing life-threatening infections are without proper sanitary supplies.
Jones says it is unacceptable that home care and palliative patients in the province are facing shortages of supplies they need, and she is working to have it rectified.
The sudden change of suppliers came with no notice in late September. One month later, healthcare providers are scrambling to access basic supplies or are being delivered substandard supplies.
“Did the Premier try to cut corners,” asked Stiles. “We need to know exactly what was behind this decision, and how much longer vulnerable patients will have to wait for medical supplies. This is extremely serious.”
Stiles says the province switched suppliers without informing health care providers. "This has left healthcare professionals scrambling for supplies, and vulnerable patients rushing to overcrowded hospitals for emergency care."
Jones says she has been working with Ontario Health at Home on what she calls a logistics issue.
With files from Canadian Press.
