Ontario Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca pledged his party would erase the province’s backlog for surgeries by investing $1 billion over two years if elected next month.
The party says it would put the funding into better staffing hospitals, allowing them to operate above pre-pandemic levels.
The Liberals also pledged to make wait times for surgeries return to pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2022. Services that were on hold during the pandemic includes doctor’s visits, surgeries and diagnostic tests.
An @OntLiberal government will invest $1 billion over two years to erase the province’s backlog for surgeries, and clean up the Ford Conservatives’ mess that’s keeping sick patients stuck in waiting rooms.#TheChoiceIsYours #onpoli https://t.co/vjfrv2e99L
— Steven Del Duca (@StevenDelDuca) May 11, 2022
“An Ontario Liberal government would make the investments that are required to make sure that our publicly funded health-care system is set up and is supported and has adequate resources to deal with the surgical and diagnostic backlog,” Del Duca said during an announcement in Etobicoke on Wednesday.
The Ontario Medical Association says the backlog of health-care services had grown to 20 million last fall as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
