Catherine Fife MPP, Waterloo

CAMBRIDGE - Official Opposition NDP Leader Marit Stiles met Friday with representatives of the Waterloo Region Ontario Health Coalition to discuss the growing issue of Code Reds: no ambulance available.  

“In Waterloo Region, as across the province, our hospitals have been stretched to their breaking point,” Stiles said. “Code Reds are becoming more common because our hospitals are starved of funding, with overworked, underpaid staff leaving the sector.  

“The Conservatives are closing their eyes to this crisis. Instead of investing to make health care better, they’re handing millions of our health care dollars over to their rich corporate friends. People will be left waiting longer and receive poorer care.” 

Earlier this month, a man in Waterloo Region who has cancer had to wait 11 hours to be transferred from paramedic care to Cambridge Memorial Hospital.  

Waterloo Region paramedics say Code Reds increased in frequency and duration in the last half of 2023. 

Ontario is facing a health crisis province-wide, with emergency room doctors and medical associations sounding the alarm about ballooning ER wait times and patient needs that are increasingly complex. 

Last week, Stiles challenged Ford’s Conservatives to implement three simple staffing solutions the NDP has been calling for that would reduce wait times as quickly as possible.  

The OHC met with the Ford government Thursday to make demands for more investment in hospitals and staffing ahead of the Conservatives’ budget. 

“Without workers, our hospitals can’t function,” Stiles said. “People in Waterloo Region don’t deserve to wait hours in pain for urgent care; the Conservative government must stop ignoring the community’s pleas for help and invest to fix our hospitals crisis now.”