Covid has been ravaging our province, our country and the globe since March 2020.  During the past two years, it has become increasingly alarming how fragile our healthcare system in Ontario has become and how delicately close we are to compete collapse.

Our healthcare system and healthcare workers have struggled with the demands of the Covid pandemic. Our healthcare workers are struggling and burning out at an alarming rate. 

The vaccines have helped tremendously, and has prevented many deaths and hospitalization, but what could have made by far the biggest difference during the pandemic is an increase in hospital capacities and funding.  Increased funding would have increased physical  capacity and staffing and would have given us the ability to deal with all these waves instead of the ongoing need for lockdowns and mandates.  

With increased funding the previously closed beds and facilities would have provided the space to care for the sick and to hire more staff to care for the increased workload and could have prevented the burnout of healthcare workers.  We could have avoided vaccine mandates and avoided the firing of many vital employees because we would have had the capacity to care for the smaller percentage that chose to be unvaccinated. 

Our system was already on the brink of collapse prior to Covid. Covid was an accelarant to what was and is inevitable to happen from all the previous and ongoing cuts to healthcare. 

Covid should be our eye opener to how delicate and fragile Ontario's healthcare system truly is. The next wave that is coming is going to completely ruin and cause a compete collapse of our healthcare system and cause irreparable damage and burnout to healthcare workers, but it is not going to be Covid.

The next wave will be a Tsunami, a tsunami of mental health, addiction, delayed cancer treatments and later stage diagnosis , so many undiagnosed or delayed health conditions including more advanced cardiac patients, diabetics, organ failures all due to the current lockdowns.  Add to that our aging population and we will see more pressure than we are currently seeing. We will be witnesses to a very terrifying time if we continue at staus quo. Changes are needed now! 

WE are imploring you, begging you, screaming at the top of our lungs that it is time to not only stop the cuts, but to reverse all the cuts over the past 10 years, to increase healthcare funding , increase hospital capacities, reopen all the beds and units that have been closed and to restore our healthcare system to what it was.  One we can be proud of and have faith will be able to provide us care and safety.