Ombudsman must investigate Liberal health monopoly

Here’s what St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley had to say in the Legislative Assembly, Jun.12, 2001, when he was in opposition:

“Mr James J. Bradley (St Catharines): I have a petition that is to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:
"Whereas the nurses of Ontario are seeking relief from heavy workloads, which have contributed to unsafe conditions for patients and have increased the risk of injury to nurses; and
"Whereas there is a chronic nursing shortage in Ontario; and
"Whereas the Ontario government has failed to live up to its commitment to provide safe, high quality care for patients;
"We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly as follows:
"We demand the Ontario government take positive action to ensure that our communities have enough nursing staff to provide patients with the care they need. The Ontario government must:
"Ensure wages and benefits are competitive and value all nurses for their dedication and commitment; ensure there are full-time and regular part-time jobs available for nurses in hospitals, nursing homes and the community; ensure government revenues fund health care, not tax cuts; and ensure front-line nurses play a key role in health reform decisions."
I affix my signature, as I'm in complete agreement with this petition.”

So, in 2008, there’s no shortage of nurses in Ontario under his Liberals?

Did Jim Bradley see the full-page ad in the National Post (Dec.29, 2007) by the Canadian Nurses Association stating: “Right now, we are experiencing nurse shortages in dealing with the millions of patients we see each week. And it could get worse”?

Add this to the recent CTV News story (Dec. 12, 2007 report by Paul Bliss) about the Ontario Auditor’s report:

“Another concern raised in the annual audit surrounded wait times for surgeries.
McCarter said about 40 per cent of hospital operating rooms were not being used during nine weeks in the summer of 2006.
He also said surgical facilities are frequently closed on weekends and during the Christmas holidays and March Break.
The report found vacation staffing schedules were behind the closed operating rooms.
The audit also showed that despite government focus on surgical wait times, Ontario has no idea how many operating rooms the province has or adequate information on how many patients are waiting for specific surgeries.”

As if the above is not enough, add recent reports that the main hospital in Jim Bradley’s riding of St. Catharines has been found to have abnormally high patient death rates - which apparently wasn’t enough for Jim Bradley to immediately call for an inquiry.

Did Jim Bradley stand up in the Legislature, or anywhere else, and drone on about petitions demanding investigation into the shortages, staff and labour mis-allocations and poor results found within the single-payer health-care monopoly which Bradley so cherishes?

What choice do Bradley’s Liberals offer to patients who are forced to suffer in such an abysmal health care administrative mess? The fact that even the local MPP doesn't think it worthy of an immediate and wide-sweeping investigation, is worthy of an investigation itself.

I ask Jim Bradley to immediately call upon the Ombudsman to investigate the Liberal's mishandling of Ontario's health system. A Jan.2007 Ombudsman's report, which was spurred by the Liberal mis-management of the Suzanne Aucoin case, revealed what I believe is only the tip of an iceberg of systemic problems in the health monopoly, not the least of which is indicated by the existence of the McCreith/Holmes health care Charter challenge against Ontario currently before the Courts.

Jim Bradley’s Liberals have raised multi-billions of new Health-Tax dollars for their no-patient-payer-choice health monopoly…where has it been allocated? What results has that allocation brought to St. Catharines?

During the Sept.20, 2007 televised election debate, Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty twice said that Ontario spends half of its budget on health care. Was McGuinty telling the truth? Is half of our entire budget not enough? How much more will it take, Mr. Bradley, before socialized health care starts to work?

In 2001 Jim Bradley was saying he’s “in complete agreement” to “ensure government revenues fund health care, not tax cuts”.

But in Dec. 2007, Jim Bradley’s Liberals announced a $3 billion spending plan, including over $1 billion in tax cuts for Ontario! (Toronto Star, Dec.13, 2007) And this is when the Liberals also hold a 2.5 billion dollar budget surplus!

So: what exactly is Jim Bradley “in complete agreement with”, anyhow? Does it change, minute-by-minute?

Will hypocrite Jim Bradley stand up today, and repeat what he so-righteously blustered in 2001, and demand that his own government "fund health care, not tax cuts"???

It's not enough anymore to just casually dismiss this kind of blatant Liberal health care duplicity by thinking 'oh, well, politicians are hypocrites...tell me something I don't already know" and laugh it off.

Ontario patients are dying in a medicare-infected monopoly, while politicians are lying and denying patients any other health care options.

If this isn't a crime, it should be.

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[update: In Niagara's deathly summer of 2011, Jim Bradley's Liberal monopolists went on to kill some 31 C. difficile-infected Niagara patients who were unwittingly trapped in McGuinty's Liberal death-camp health-monopoly. It wasn't until Aug.15, 2011 - just a month and a half before the next provincial election - that future health minister Deb Matthews finally, and reluctantly, would agree to call in a Supervisor for the NHS.
What Liberal negligence, after years of McGuinty's smug, fascistic single-payer despotism, and murderous health-monopolism.]
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