Lisa Gretzky MPP, for Windsor West

QUEEN’S PARK – NDP MPP Lisa Gretzky (Windsor West) asked Premier Doug Ford during question period Thursday why he refuses to act on Windsor’s long ER wait times. She released the following statement: 
  
"In recent weeks, I have heard from many Windsor families who have had to wait 20 hours to be seen in hospital emergency departments. According to a CBC report, one Windsor resident had to wait 19 hours in the ER to find out she has a cancerous kidney tumour and a blood clot in her lungs. 

Emergency departments in Windsor are in crisis. Nurses and health care workers are burnt out, working multiple back-to-back shifts due to staffing shortages. The shortage of family and emergency department physicians are also causing delays. People are suffering while waiting for medical help.  
 
Doug Ford continues to tear down our health care system by suppressing the wages of nurses, forcing them to leave the profession. Many nurses in Windsor-Essex are choosing to work in the United States where they are respected, protected and paid appropriately. Ford's Conservative's are hinting at privatizing health care instead of addressing the health care worker shortage.  They must repeal Bill 124 and implement the NDP’s health care retention and recruitment strategy, which is supported by the Ontario Nurses Association, to ensure residents in Windsor and across the province have access to the medical care they need in a timely manner."