Ontario's NDP party says 100 jobs will be lost and 13 beds closed at Bluewater Health if Doug Ford and the PCs are elected on June 7.
Sarnia-Lambton NDP candidate Kathy Alexander made the claim Friday morning in front of the Sarnia hospital.
She says Ford would cut $6-billion in spending, but his party's "poorly-released platform" doesn't specifically explain where those cuts would be made. 40% of the Ontario budget is health care.
"Based on our numbers and the budget of the provincial government, we've basically done some simple math, and that would equate to 100 workers being laid off and 13 beds being closed," says Alexander.
Incumbent PC candidate Bob Bailey says he unequivocally refutes the claims and says the people should be concerned about the New Democrats causing cuts.
"They call for $3-billion in efficiencies by the fourth or fifth year, so I want someone to say, well how many beds, how many hospitals, how many nurses are you laying off?" says Bailey. "Alexander and the NDP are all wet on this and I don't care what she says. I fought hard for that hospital long before she was even in this community, so we're going to keep it open, we're going to keep it funded and we're going to keep it staffed."
Bailey claims this is just another case of fear mongering from the NDP.
But Alexander, who is executive director of the Bluewater Health Foundation, says cutting billions in government spending always means closing hospitals or firing nurses and frontline personnel.
She says further cuts will hinder a province that's already not getting the health care it deserves.
"More people will be coming to the hospital for emergencies and waiting longer," she says. "People are waiting over two years for a long-term-care bed in this community, 600 people in Sarnia-Lambton are waiting for a bed and over 42,000 are waiting across Ontario."
Similar messages were spread Friday by other NDP candidates across Ontario.