Mayor Brown responds to Jagmeet Singh’s comment regarding Ford’s ‘horrible’ handling of Brampton health care crisis
Published October 5, 2020 at 6:48 pm
Recently, Federal NDP Leader, Jagmeet Singh stated that he thinks Premier Doug Ford has done a ‘horrible job’ handling the health care crisis in Brampton.
Recently, Federal NDP Leader, Jagmeet Singh stated that he thinks Premier Doug Ford has done a ‘horrible job’ handling the health care crisis in Brampton.
From incidents relating to “hallway health care” and Brampton’s healthcare system still in need of additional funding, the City’s status when it comes to health care has left residents feeling like they are being overlooked.
In August, Mayor Patrick Brown told Khaled Iwamura from inbrampton.com an exclusive interview that the City of Brampton has “designated land” for a potential third hospital.
Back in November 2019, Andrea Horwath, NDP leader of Ontario’s Official Opposition, revealed that Brampton’s Peel Memorial Urgent Care Centre is operating at a 587% volume compared to what it is funded for.
Videos
This statement means that for every patient the centre is funded to care for, almost five other patients are looking for care. In other words, it means that the centre is operating at 585% above what it is funded for.
In a recent interview, Federal NDP Leader, Jagmeet Singh chatted with Khaled Iwamura from inbrampton.com about how COVID-19 has been handled in the Region of Peel.
When asked about his opinion, Singh told Iwamura that the Region of Peel has been given “the short end of the stick.”
“Brampton specifically, has been ignored by the liberal and conservative governments for the past two decades,” said Singh, pointing out that the city of 600,000 people only has one hospital.
“We’ve got a health care crisis and he’s [Ford] been cutting health care,” said Singh, “I think he [Ford] has done a horrible job.”
Last week, Iwamura also chatted with Mayor Patrick Brown and was asked to share his thoughts on Singh’s comment regarding the way Ford has handled Brampton’s health care crisis.
“I think multiple governments over the years have let Brampton down and so where we are today, is the government spends $1,900 on average per resident of Ontario and it’s only $900 in Brampton,” said Brown.
“I’ve explained this to Doug Ford. I’ve said, ‘I know you didn’t inherit this mess, but now it’s your responsibility to fix it,’ and Brampton needs Phase 2 of Peel Memorial completed.”
Brown went on to emphasize the need for a new hospital but explained that in order to start that process, Brampton needs to catch up on the provincial average of beds.
“We have half the beds that are the provincial average, we’re underfunded on mental health as well,” said Brown.
“We need to have equitable funding from federal and provincial governments.”
insauga's Editorial Standards and Policies advertising