With election day looming, the Star examined the government’s record in three key areas.
Joy SpearChief-Morris Feb. 22, 2025
Health care remains a top concern for many voters as they head to the polls to vote for Ontario’s next government.
Ending “hallway health care” and improving the provincial health-care system were big promises in the Progressive Conservative Party’s campaign in 2018.
How effective has the PC government been at delivering better health care for Ontarians since they came to power?
With the COVID-19 pandemic diverting many resources to the crisis, Sara Allin, associate professor of health policy at the University of Toronto, said there is a lack of data to properly assess the government’s health-care investments overall.
“That in itself is a concern, something that I would see as a sort of failure of governance, of leadership, of a system,” Allin said.
“We need to be able to show (the status of the health system) to the public and we’re not seeing that.”
With election day coming Thursday, the Star spoke with health-care experts and examined the dollars spent to get a better look at the government’s recent record in three areas: long-term care, mental health and addictions, and hospital infrastructure.
Long-term care
In 2018, the PC government promised to create 15,000 long-term-care beds in five years and 30,000 beds over 10 years, so as to reduce hospital overcrowding and wait-lists by freeing up beds taken by “alternate level of care” patients.
In the 2024 provincial budget, the province reported that $6.4 billion has been invested in long-term care since 2019. The budget added an investment of $155 million in new funds for this year. More than 18,000 beds are “open, under construction, or have approval to start construction,” while plans call for 58,000 new and upgraded beds by 2028.
Comentarios