Jagmeet Singh Promises New Hospital And Investments In Health Care In Brampton

Brampton | Ontario | Latest News | Politics |

Published September 12, 2019 at 3:46 pm

Brampton City Council has been campaigning for months to get the provincial government to invest in Brampton’s healthcare.

Brampton City Council has been campaigning for months to get the provincial government to invest in Brampton’s healthcare.

According to internal hospital memos, 4,352 patients were treated in hospital hallways at the Brampton Civic Hospital in 2016-17. The exponential growth in the city has led to  overcrowding.

In June, Mayor Patrick Brown and members of the City Council announced the launch of the #FairDealForBrampton campaign, aimed at getting more funding for Brampton’s healthcare.

According to the city, Brampton’s healthcare system faces major issues including overcrowding, hallway medicine, and a severe lack of funds.

Other statistics provided by the city include:

  • Brampton Civic ED is built for 90,000 visits per year but gets 130,000 visits per year.

  • Peel Memorial is funded for 10,000 visits a year but receives on average 75,000.

  • Only 17% of residents have access to an interdisciplinary primary care team.

  • 38% of the population aged 12+ has one or more chronic conditions.

  • Brampton has a 46% highest projected dementia rate in the province between 2015-2025.

And, now NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and the NDP’s Team Brampton highlighted the urgent need for better health services in Brampton. 

Today (September 12), they stated that they are committed to investing in health care and working with the city and the province to get a new hospital built.

“When people go to the only hospital in the Brampton region, they wait and wait in pain — only to be moved onto a stretcher or a chair in a hallway,” said Singh. “For years, Liberal and Conservative governments have squeezed health care funding while demand is going up. New Democrats are different – we’re ready to invest in the health services people need, here in Brampton and all across the country.”

According to the NDP’s New Deal for People, the NDP party will commit to tackling health care wait times, expanding access to health care and provide free access to prescription drugs with the national pharmacare, starting with an investment of $10 billion. According to Singh, their national pharmacare will save Canadians at least an estimated $4.2 billion per year.

“When we make the investments in health services like pharmacare, people can stay healthy and save the system money. No one should have to be in a $1,500 a day hospital bed because they couldn’t afford a $5 pill. We can bring in pharmacare and expand health services, if we have the courage to make different choices,” added Singh.

The NDP candidates in Brampton are Saranjit Singh (Brampton East), Mandeep Kaur (Brampton South), Jordan Boswell (Brampton Centre), Melissa Edwards (Brampton North) and Navjit Kaur (Brampton West).

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