LAB IS ESSENTIAL
Election Toolkit
Ontario is voting on June 2, 2022. Medical laboratories impact all aspects of patient care, from emergency rooms to family medicine to mental health. Every sample—COVID-19 swabs taken in pharmacies, blood drawn in doctor’s offices, tumors extracted during surgery—is processed and analyzed by medical laboratory professionals. This information keeps Ontarians healthy and out of the hospital.
We have seen 30+ announcements from the Ministry of Health to support new beds and hospitals. This investment in healthcare is hopeful, but beds are just beds unless they have adequate staffing. We need equal investment in all areas that impact patient care, particularly the lab. We can't grow healthcare unless we grow together.
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70% of labs entered COVID-19 short-staffed.
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90% of medical laboratory professionals are experiencing burnout.
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73% actively desire to leave the profession.
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Investing in laboratories could avert $1.6 billion annually in lengthening hospital stays, duplicate family practice appointments, and delayed turnaround times for tests.
MLPAO will be informing our members on the different party platforms and how they impact the lab. Stay tuned to this page for more details.
Top 5 Issues:
Retention Pay
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Clinical Placements
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SDF Timeline
Extension
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Rural + Remote Labs
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Bridging + Upskilling
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Begin working immediately on pharmacare for Ontario, instead of waiting for a federal plan, and strengthen and accelerate the expansion of dental care.
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Hire 10,000 personal support workers, give them a raise. Hire 30,000 nurses, expedite recognition of nursing credentials of 15,000 internationally trained nurses. Scrap Bill 124, which limits public sector compensation increases.
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Hire 300 doctors in northern Ontario, including 100 specialists and 40 mental health practitioners. Fund travel accommodations for medical residents to take elective rotations in rural and northern communities. Create more residency rotation positions to help retain doctors in the north.
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End health-care user fees, such as doctors’ notes.
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Raise the minimum wage to $20 in 2026, with $1-an-hour increases annually. Legislate 10 permanent personal emergency leave days.
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Implement a four-day work week pilot project.
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Restore the previous government’s free tuition program. Convert post-secondary student loans to grants. Retroactively erase student loan interest.
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Establish universal mental health coverage. Establish Mental Health Ontario. Invest $130 million over three years in children’s mental health. Boost funding to Canadian Mental Health Association branches by eight per cent. Invest $10 million more in mobile crisis services. Invest an additional $7 million for safe bed programs to support mobile crisis teams.
https://www.ontariondp.ca/platform/health-care
https://www.ontariondp.ca/platform/good-jobs
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Raise base pay for personal support workers to $25 an hour. Guarantee access to mental health services for all health professionals. Repeal Bill 124, which limits public sector compensation increases.
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Boost the minimum wage to $16 an hour by Jan. 1. Work to set regional living wages. Establish 10 paid sick days and reimburse businesses for costs of up to $200 per day. Create a portable benefits package. Restore equal pay provisions. Eliminate corporate taxes for two years for small businesses “deeply” hurt by the pandemic, end incorporation fees for new startups, and classify gig workers as employees.
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Hire 100,000 new nurses, doctors and other health care workers including internationally-trained health professionals
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Add more nursing and medical school spaces
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Cover tuition costs for medical and nursing students working in a rural or remote communities
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Ensure access to a doctor or nurse practitioner within 24 hours
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Grow the number of hospital beds by 20%
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Cover more medication costs
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Get more people mental health help
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Save lives in the opioid crisis
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The 2022 budget formed the foundation of the Ontario PC election platform.
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The healthcare investments in Budget 2022 focus on expanding Ontario’s healthcare workforce, building increased healthcare capacity, improving hospitals, and patient care while also focusing on some preventative measures like homecare, mental health supports and improving access through the new Health Connect Ontario program aimed at replacing Telehealth Ontario.
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The government’s Plan to Stay Open rests on building a better, more resilient healthcare system following the pandemic, commitments to hiring more nurses, allowing more seniors to stay in their own homes longer, and focusing on domestic production of vaccines and other critical supplies.
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This budget plans to spend heavily on building more capacity. The government is pledging $40 billion in hospital expansions over 10 years, and is branding this as the largest health plans in Ontario’s history. In addition, Ontario is planning to accelerate building more long-term care homes, with their goal of reaching 30,000 new or repurposed beds in operation by 2026.
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Total healthcare expenditures are expected to rise to $75 billion in 2022-23 and are projected to continue rising to $78 billion in fiscal year 2024-25.