LONDON, ON – London-area MPPs Peggy Sattler (London West), Terence Kernaghan (London North Centre), and Teresa Armstrong (London—Fanshawe) issued the following statement in response to troubling reports that the Middlesex-London Health Unit (MLHU) cannot keep up with service demand:
“It is deeply troubling that local public health agencies across the province are having to beg the government to maintain funding for health care programs, especially given the system’s crisis.
At a time when people are waiting longer than ever to access the healthcare they need, this government is choosing to look away and continue to withhold billions of dollars of unspent money. While they continue to pat themselves on the back with vague and insufficient healthcare announcements, front-line providers such as MLHU know that the reality is much more grim. Their underfunding in health care, and their redirecting public dollars out of the public system and into private shareholder pockets, has real consequences. In the London area, that includes a local dental care clinic whose provincial funding never came through.
Over the past few months, we have seen more and more local health units being forced to shut down services, including emergency services, due to lack of support from this government.”
QUICK FACTS:
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Middlesex-London Health Unit is anticipating a significant funding shortfall in 2024 with the end of the School Focused Nurses Initiative and COVID-19 Extraordinary Expense Funding
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Rapidly increasing population in the region (10 per cent over the last five years) is leading to increased pressures on the local health unit
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This morning the Financial Accountability Officer’s report showed $1.7 billion worth of underspending in healthcare and leaves a total of $7.2 billion underspent