Glinas says she wants 'equity for the north' as Sudbury hospital pushed to capacity

France Glinas, MPP for Nickel Belt and the opposition health critic, spoke in the Ontario legislature yesterday about what she says is inequitable access to health care.

Her comments come afterHealth Sciences North in Sudbury cancelled elective surgeries last week, because the Sudbury hospital was over capacity.

Glinas says at the same time, other hospitals in Ontario had 4,500 empty hospital beds.

"We have our hospital here in northeastern Ontario full at 104% capacity, which means that we are back having people in shower rooms and in hallways and in the basement of the hospital," Glinas said. "When other areas of the province have way more resources to provide quality care."

"I want equity for the people of the north."

Glinas says issues with surgery wait times and overcrowding are not new, but they have been made worse because of the pandemic.

"And those are often people that are sick or people in pain that have been waiting for their surgery and had to make arrangements...you'll need a babysitter, you'll need this and that because you'll be in the hospital for the next 4 days," Glinas said.

"All of a sudden it all falls apart."