Patrick Brown says Brampton has ‘designated land’ for potential third hospital
Published August 17, 2020 at 5:29 pm
To say that Brampton residents have been enduring a tough and unfortunately, unfair situation when it comes to medical facilities, would be an understatement.
To say that Brampton residents have been enduring a tough and unfortunately, unfair situation when it comes to medical facilities, would be an understatement.
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 an exclusive interview, Mayor Patrick Brown told Khaled Iwamura from inbrampton.com that the City of Brampton has “designated land” for a potential third hospital.
“The health care plans for Brampton are that we want to see the Phase 2 at Peel Memorial completed and that’s near the downtown, but we’ve also designated land for a third hospital in the northwest of Brampton,” Brown told Iwamura.
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“That’s the area where there wouldn’t be immediate access to health care services.”
Back in November, 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.
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 her statement, Horwath also pointed out that while the province has announced investments in hospitals across the province, Brampton–which is where the term “hallway health care” was coined–has been continuously overlooked, adding that between July 2018 and August 2019, the government only created 21 beds making the waitlist grow by 2,800 people.
Following a conference on July 23, Official Opposition NDP Deputy Leader and MPP for Brampton Centre, Sara Singh, released a statement in response to Ford’s ongoing refusal to build a new hospital that the City of Brampton desperately needs.
“For many years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Brampton has been ground zero for Ontario’s hallway medicine crisis, with Brampton families forced to wait for hours in waiting rooms only to be treated on gurneys in the hallway and Brampton health care workers forced to do more and more with less and less provincial support,” said Singh.
“But despite multiple opportunities to support the people of Brampton by fully funding Brampton Civic, converting Peel Memorial Health Centre to a full-time 24-hour hospital and building a new hospital for our growing community, the Ford government voted against NDP motions allocating funding for a new Brampton hospital.”
Singh also highlighted that the COVID-19 pandemic has put more pressure on Brampton’s health care infrastructure.
“Doug Ford’s ongoing refusal to build this hospital amounts to condemning Bramptonians to more painfully long waits, hallway medicine, delayed surgeries, and strained response to future public health crises. It’s shameful, and the people of Brampton deserve so much better,” concluded the statement.
While Brampton has undertaken many initiatives in order to request more funding and support for its health care system, the city declared a health care emergency back in February after a unanimous vote at city council following a three-hour delegation from Concerned Ontario Doctors (COD).
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