Health care workers are organizing a rally in Pickering outside Ontario PC MPP Peter Bethlenfalvy’s constituency office to protest the provincial government’s failure to address the hospital funding crisis.
Michael Hurley, president of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU-CUPE), said emergency department wait-times across Ontario have increased significantly as government funding fails to keep pace with rising costs in the sector.
Hurley cited CIHI data showing that 90% of ER patients at Lakeridge Health waited 79% longer in 2024-25 (67.6 hours) compared to five years ago (37.8 hours in 2020-21). Wait-times for an initial doctor’s assessment in the emergency department also increased by 87 per cent (4.3 hours in 2024-25).
“Patients pay a heavy price of emergency department backlogs, as overcrowding leads to increased risks of oversights and medical errors, worsening symptoms and lower quality of care, and even higher death rates,” he said. “It’s hard to overstate the importance of providing timely care to patients.”
The Durham hospital has eliminated 40 jobs over the past year as it struggles with chronic fiscal deficits.
A recent report by the Canadian Centre of Policy Alternatives found that hospital costs in Ontario are rising by 6% annually. The government’s response to the report confirmed that hospital funding has been limited to an annual increase of 4%.
“The Ford government has shown a stubborn insistence on austerity for hospitals, even as funding shortages are crushing workers, and causing untold suffering for patients,” Hurley said. “The Conservatives must fund our hospitals properly.”
OCHU-CUPE represents 46,000 health care staff including workers at Lakeridge Health.
