Liberals pledge $1B to clear surgery backlog
Del Duca says plan would see hospitals better staffed, able to take on more
The Ontario Liberals would put $1 billion over two years toward clearing an overwhelming surgical backlog — a pledge that’s part of all three major parties’ election platforms.
Leader Steven Del Duca said Wednesday a Liberal government would put the additional funding into allowing hospitals to operate “significantly” above pre-pandemic volumes.
“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 west Toronto.
The Ontario Medical Association estimated last fall that the backlog of health-care services had grown to 20 million as doctors and nurses cared for wave after wave of COVID-19 patients while dealing with staffing shortages.
The services that were put off during the pandemic include doctors’ visits, diagnostic tests, treatments and surgeries.
In March, then-health minister Christine Elliott said the surgical backlog was around 50,000.
Del Duca said his plan would see hospitals better staffed, and able to take on more work. “It will make sure that we can run our MRI procedures, our CT scan procedures, our operating rooms, full tilt, on weekends on evenings,” he said.
The Liberals would ensure wait times for surgeries return to prepandemic levels by the end of 2022, Del Duca said. He said they’d also create maximum wait times and publish them.
The Liberals, who are seeking to improve upon their third-party status this election, also said they would help create not-for-profit surgery centres run by local hospitals to manage higher surgical volumes, and an e-referral system that would make things “easier and more efficient” for patients and their families.
The Progressive Conservatives suggested the Liberals were partially to blame for the surgery backlog, saying the previous government under that party — which was voted out in the 2018 election — stretched the health-care system “to a breaking point.”
Last month’s budget from the Progressive Conservatives put $300 million toward the “Surgical Recovery Strategy” to increase scheduled surgeries, procedures and diagnostic services “with a focus on areas with the greatest reduction in services due to the pandemic.”
The NDP said late Wednesday afternoon that it would, if elected, spend $1.38 billion to clear the surgical backlog within two years. “We’ll identify and publicize the number of delayed procedures and publish regular progress reports,” the party’s platform reads.