NEWS:

Today, Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak and Ontario PC Health Critic Christine Elliott called for a full review of the recent health care cuts imposed by Dalton McGuinty’s Hamilton – Niagara – Haldimand – Brant (HNHB) LHIN, after an investigation by Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin confirmed that the LHIN made these decisions through a “secret” and “plainly illegal” process.  The LHIN closed emergency rooms in Niagara.

In light of the Ombudsman’s finding that the “illegal bylaw” used by the LHIN had to be copied by Dalton McGuinty’s 13 other regional health care bureaucracies, Hudak and Elliott also repeated their call that Dalton McGuinty honour his legal commitment to hold a full legislative review of every LHIN bureaucracy, which is he secretly cancelled in the 2010 Ontario Budget papers.

The Ontario PC Caucus have uncovered waste, untendered contracts and bloated salaries at the LHINs across Ontario. To date, the LHINs have squandered $200 million health care dollars on salaries and administration while mismanaging at $250 million Aging at Home strategy for Ontario seniors.  Hudak repeated his commitment that, as Premier, he will eliminate McGuinty’s LHIN bureaucracies and reinvest this money into frontline patient care.

QUOTES:

– Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak

– Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak

QUICK FACTS:

Ombudsman Andre Marin’s report said the following:

• “While the LHIN may have been well-intentioned in holding its ‘education’ sessions, these meetings were plainly illegal.”

• “The LHIN’s apparent failure to grasp the significant of its transgressions – and its reluctance to alter its practice – do not bode well for the integrity of its decision-making in the future.”

• “Despite its lip service to the principle of transparency, the Ministry is not fully committed to openness with respect to the LHIN process.”