Ford’s Delays Causing Unacceptable Wait Times for Breast Cancer Patients

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
​April 25, 2023

QUEEN’S PARK – Since the Ford Conservatives took office five years ago, Ontarians have witnessed a drastic increase in wait times for medical procedures.

In Ottawa, patients awaiting life-saving breast cancer surgery are seeing their surgical dates pushed further and further back, forcing some to travel to out-of-province private clinics and pay out-of-pocket costs as high as $50,000 – just so they can get the treatment they desperately need.

At the Ottawa Hospital’s General Campus, only 13% of women waiting for a breast cancer procedure will receive their surgery within the target time.

“How is this in any way acceptable?” said MPP John Fraser, Interim Leader of the Ontario Liberal Party. “The risk of death to breast cancer patients increases by six to eight percent for every four weeks their surgery is delayed. Yet, here in Ottawa, we have patients waiting up to six months.”

Meanwhile, the Ford Conservatives have allowed the Ottawa Hospital to rent out its own operating rooms at the Riverside Campus to a private company to perform hip and knee operations on the weekends, while breast cancer patients wait.

“Women are having their life-saving surgery delayed and rescheduled multiple times,” added MPP Fraser. “That wait is agonizing and unacceptable.”

Ontario Liberals have called on the Ford Conservatives to take serious action to clear the surgical backlog. That starts with utilizing our publicly funded operating rooms by keeping them open after hours. 

Today, MPP Fraser will ask the government a question on this matter in Question Period.