FAILED DIABETES REGISTRY, NURSE LAYOFFS,
PROOF THAT DALTON MCGUINTY’S THRONE SPEECH CANNOT BE TRUSTED
March 3rd, 2010
With each passing day it becomes
more clear that Dalton McGuinty’s Throne Speech promises cannot be
trusted. One need not look any further than the mountains of
broken promises littering Dalton McGuinty’s previous Speeches from
the Throne for evidence of this fact.
In his 2007 Throne Speech, Dalton
McGuinty promised he would set up a provincial diabetes strategy,
the centerpiece of which would be a provincial diabetes registry to
be set up by the Spring 2009 – by none other his Liberal appointed
friends at eHealth Ontario. Despite the waste of hundreds
of millions of dollars, Spring 2009 has come and gone and Ontario diabetics are still no closer to
getting their promised support.
In his 2007 Throne Speech, Dalton
McGuinty also promised he would hire 9,000 nurses. Dalton
McGuinty’s empty promises come as small comfort the seniors,
families and patients in Ottawa
who are grappling with the news that the Ottawa Hospital
will actually be forced to eliminate 190 nursing positions due to a
lack of frontline support.
QUOTES
“Ontario
families who counted on Dalton McGuinty to follow through with a
diabetes registry or more nurses have been let down by the scandals
and waste of the McGuinty Liberals. If Dalton McGuinty’s next
Throne Speech contains as many broken promises as his previous ones,
he might as well stay prorogued.”
--
Christine Elliott,
Ontario
PC MPP for Whitby – Oshawa and Ontario PC Deputy Leader and Health
Critic
“The only people who can count on
Dalton McGuinty’s health care promises are U.S. medical brokers, Liberal
appointed health care executives, and Liberal-friendly consultants.”
--
Christine Elliott,
Ontario
PC MPP for Whitby – Oshawa and Ontario PC Deputy Leader and Health
Critic
QUICK FACTS
-
“…because more
Ontarians are struggling with diabetes, your government will
introduce a new comprehensive diabetes strategy.” (2007 Ontario Speech from the Throne)
-
In his scathing report
on the McGuinty Liberal eHealth scandal,
Ontario’s Auditor
General estimated the total cost of the eHealth diabetes
registry was $54 million, yet criticized the McGuinty Government
saying that “the proposed timing of
this release of the Diabetes Registry has shifted regularly and
significantly,” while “expected content of the release
has also diminished over time.” The Auditor General
concluded by pointing out that despite the expenditure of
millions of dollars, “deliverables have been significantly
reduced since the government first publicly committed to the
registry.” (Office of the Auditor General of
Ontario, Special Report on
Ontario’s
Electronic Health Records Initiative)
-
“Your government will
hire 9,000 more nurses” (2007
Ontario Speech from
the Throne)
-
The
Ottawa
Hospital
has announced the elimination of 190 nursing positions to deal
with a projected 2010-2011 budget shortfall of $19 million.
Linda Haslam-Stroud, President of the Ontario Nurses’
Association, said the cuts amount to 300,000 hours of lost
nursing care to patients and longer delays and wait times for
emergency care and elective surgeries. (Ottawa Citizen,
FFebruary 26, 2010)
CONTACT:
Laryssa Waler
416-325-8505
Laryssa.waler@pc.ola.org
