SIOUX LOOKOUT – MPP Sol Mamakwa released the following statement on the closure of Red Lake Margaret Cochenour Memorial Hospital’s emergency department due to a shortage of physicians:
“Families of Red Lake should be able to access emergency health care when they need it. If someone you loved has an accident or a heart attack this weekend, they will be hours away from the help they urgently need. The closure of Red Lake Memorial’s emergency department due to a physician shortage is a crisis and the Ford government must send more resources immediately to make sure this emergency department can stay open.
Northerners always have to wait too long and travel too far to get the health care they need. This shortages of physicians, nurses and other health care workers is only getting worse, and Ford refuses to act.
Ford must send staff resources to Red Lake immediately. Families in Red Lake deserve access to emergency medical care for themselves and their loved ones, whenever they need it."
On Wednesday, the Ford government voted against an NDP’s motion to fund a plan to attract, train and retain nurses, physicians, and specialists in Northern Ontario, further expand the number of seats and training opportunities at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, and the repeal of Ford’s low-wage policy, Bill 124.