My message to… DOUG FORD

Fix our health care system…. and here is how you can do it!

Yes, you have won two majority governments back-to-back and that is an amazing thing to achieve especially in this day and age. You have earned the right to govern the way you see fit with your policies and timelines. You can pour money into infrastructure hand out MZO’s which is a fancy word for a ministerial zoning order which gives permission to build by overriding the municipalities wishes. You can dump money into aboriginal issues and legacies, but the one thing that none of these issues can prevail without is a strong population.

If our population is sick and broken, none of these policies can move forward without the strength and spirit of our people. Having a broken system is like having a broken population. If the car is broken or not running right, it will not get you where you want to go safely and on time. Health care in Canada and especially in Ontario has always had a great reputation and a clean bill of health. It’s getting harder and harder for Ontarians to get health care they need. Too many folks wait hours at the emergency room, wait weeks for a doctor’s appointment, or spend weeks or months waiting in pain and anxiety for a surgery. The pandemic exposed just how broken our health care system is, with nurses, doctors and other health professionals chronically short-staffed and run off their feet, unable to give patients the time and attention they need.

For decades, Conservative and Liberal governments made cuts and bad choices which damaged Ontario’s health care system. Doug Ford was cutting critical health services before the pandemic – he slashed public health units from 35 to 10, and his low-wage policy, Bill 124, froze the wages of health care workers below the rate of inflation. He refused to spend the money needed to shore up hospitals and health care during the pandemic. Disrespected, burnt out nurses and other health care workers are leaving the sector in droves.

Let us not forget our past but let’s learn from it and move forward without throwing arrows at the past politicians /governments of the day when it comes to health care. We need our health care system fixed and working properly before we can move forward in a healthy, prosperous way. Health care is always at the heart root of every community and yes there is a global crisis, but l firmly believe that here in Ontario, we have the money and ability to get it done right. We had one of the best home care programs in the world and my understanding from speaking with many experts in this field, that it will not take very much to make the appropriate adjustments to the system when it comes to homecare. Like most systems if strategic planning is required to ensure that the system doesn’t disintegrate.

Premier Ford, you need to put on hold some of your pet projects and concentrate on our health care system. You don’t need long drawn-out investigations and endless meetings with so called experts that just drain the system, you need someone like Kevin Smith from UHN to head up a working task force with a war chest that will implement change quickly and with ease.

Someone like Mr. Smith who knows how to navigate the system, who has been through former governments and bureaucracy, is a seasoned veteran with experience and knowledge. He is also very familiar with our health care system and knows where to start and end.

The easy answer is pumping more money into the system.

Funds need to be spent in an appropriate way and someone like Kevin Smith is the best person to head up this movement.

Mr. Smith’s experience and first-hand knowledge of the system is crucial to fixing our existing problems right now. Why bring in an outsider when we have the best at our doorstep. On a personal level, l have family and friends that are involved in the healthcare system and the things that l have been hearing most recently, sounds like we are in a war zone with shut downs and under staffing of emergency units and hospital shortages. The mental stress that is being put on these folks and the system will get us to the breaking point. I am hoping that the Premier can get a hold of this and make the appropriate needed changes.

Premiere Ford, you have been a good leader thus far, but you can become a great leader if you fix this problem. When l think of you, l do not see a legacy attached to your name, but fixing health care in Ontario will give you that legacy.

Ford nation is a movement and not necessarily attached to the conservatives, but health care is needed by all regardless of what part you belong to. Have Ford nation be the catalyst to fixing our health care system in Ontario and your legacy will be cemented. Once your legacy has been thrust upon you…. take it on the road and fix the rest of Canada.

Health care is the most important thing for you, me and all of us, because without our health, we have nothing. This can and will be your legacy, because nothing else counts.

Vincent Black/MS