Ford slammed by rivals over comments about Ontario’s ERs

February 23, 2025 Canuck

Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford is coming under attack from his rivals for comments he made Sunday about the long waits in many Ontario emergency rooms, suggesting people showing up with minor ailments were partly to blame.

Ford made the comments at a campaign stop in Sault Ste. Marie while responding to a reporter’s question about his incumbent government’s spending on health-care being the lowest per-capita in the country.

The PC leader defended his party’s record but also said that the province needs to “streamline things” to improve the health-care system. He then pointed to a recent conversation he’d had with a doctor about the long line-ups for care at a hospital emergency room in Ontario.

“He says, ‘Fifty percent of the people shouldn’t be in here,'” Ford said.

“You got a little scrape on your knee or whatever, they should be at a clinic down the street.”

Ford then gave another example about a call he’d had with a woman who had gone to the hospital about a sore throat.

“I said, ‘Respectfully, that’s the problem right there.’ Do not go to the emergency department for a sore throat.”

Ford’s comments out-of-touch, opposition parties say

Leaders for the Ontario Liberals, NDP and Green Party say Ford’s comments are out-of-touch with the challenges patients and health-care staff are facing.

“Where does he want them to go? Quite frankly, they go to the ER because they don’t have a family doctor, because this is a situation that he has created,” said Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie.

“They go to the ERs to get their children’s fevers checked out, to get antibiotics, or to address a wound because they don’t have a family doctor to do all those things for them.”

Crombie added that walk-in clinics are often full as well.

NDP Leader Marit Stiles said Ford’s comments were “insulting” to the many Ontarians facing challenges getting health care. She said she’s met people on the campaign trail who’ve traveled long distances to get to an emergency room only to find that it was closed, and even lost loved ones “because they had to travel too far and wide to get health care.”

“I find it deeply irresponsible, and frankly, it’s a bit rich coming from Doug Ford when he is responsible for the state of our health care system right now. He has been the premier for seven years,” she said.

“The answer to our health care problems is not for people to stay home and get sicker.”

Asked to respond to Ford’s comments, a spokesperson for the Green Party of Ontario said the reason Ontario’s emergency rooms are overflowing “is because Doug Ford has starved our healthcare system to the point of collapse.”

Main parties promise family doctors for all

There are close to 2.5 million people in Ontario who don’t have a family doctor, according to the Ontario College of Family Physicians. Some projections indicate another three million Ontarians could lose their family doctor to retirement in the next few years.

In a recent interview with CBC on ER waits, the past president of the OMA says right now emergency doctors are seeing patients who simply have nowhere else to go because they don’t have a family doctor to fill prescriptions or refer them to specialists.

“Our patients are much more complex, they’re much sicker,” said Dr. Andrew Park, an emergency physician.

“Their needs are higher, psychologically, physically, and so we’re having a difficult time keeping up with that demand … The waits get longer, tensions rise.”

All the main parties in the Ontario election campaign have promised to ensure everyone in the province has access to a family doctor.

The Liberals released their plan last December to spend $3.1 billion to recruit an additional 3,100 family doctors by 2029, partly by doubling medical school spots, luring qualified family doctors in other fields, and integrating internationally trained doctors more quickly.

The PC government announced its commitment on family doctors in January — a day before Ford triggered the election campaign. Their plan would involve creating 305 new primary care teams — with an unspecified number of physicians — at a cost of $1.8 billion, providing two million more Ontarians access to primary care.

The NDP promises to spend just over $4 billion to recruit 3,500 new doctors over the next four years, by making it easier for internationally trained doctors to work in Ontario and increasing medical residency spots.

The Ontario Green Party also wants to recruit 3,500 family doctors to set everyone up with one in the next three to four years. The party also would also expand public, 24/7 non-urgent clinics as an alternative to emergency rooms

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