The Ford government plans to reduce the number of public health units in the province to ten in the next two years.
There’s now 35 but it’s not known what impact the move will have on the Northwestern Health Unit just yet.
Minister of Health and Long-Term Care Christine Elliott says they’re making the system more efficient.
“We can certainly agree that the role of public health is very important, and that’s what we’re trying to do with modernizing our entire system of health care, our public health care system, to make sure that people can receive access to better, more connected services,” says Elliott. “That’s what we’re doing with public health, allowing it to be more responsive by having a smaller number of units being able to mobilize in case there’s a public health emergency.”
NDP critic Sara Singh says worries the reduction will harm public safety.
“Public health units protect us and our communities in a very cost-effective way. They administer vaccines that help keep us from getting sick and can help us avoid expensive stays in the hospital. They inspect restaurants to ensure hygienic practices are being followed and they make sure that our water is safe to drink. Public health’s bottom line is to keep us safe, and that’s a hard job to do when more than 25% of their funding is cut,” says Singh.
She’s also warning of planned cuts to the number of public health labs in Ontario.
Singh calls the public health laboratory system is one of the best in the world that the province should be investing in, not cutting.
Singh stresses the government should be investing in the system, not cutting it.
