Ontario's health minister flat out denies funding cuts are behind the decision by Community Care Access Centre to cut home visits to elderly patients by a third.
Windsor West MPP Lisa Gretzky confronted the Liberal government about the decision in the Ontario Legislature Monday after meeting with officials at the Community Care Access Centre in Windsor last week.
The centre says those patients are being referred to other services, but Gretzky fears families will be stripped of respite time while they languish on waiting lists. "For all their talk about making home care a priority, the Liberals are allowing home care services to be cut from Windsor to Sarnia. The Erie St.Clair CCAC has reduced daily nursing visits by a shocking 33% this month. That's a huge hit that means seniors won't get the care they need," says Gretzky.
Responding to Gretzky, Dr. Eric Hoskins says his government has increased, not decreased funding. "It simply isn't true that we're slashing our funding to home care," he says. "In fact we have dramatically increased the funding that we provided to home care, to community care services, through our CCACs and through our LHINs since coming into office in 2003. In fact, it is a 99% increase."
Calling the reduction unacceptable, Gretzky says families have flooded her office with phone calls uncertain what will happen to their loved ones.