Premier Doug Ford doesn't have the answers for fixing shutdowns and other challenges in Ontario's hospitals, at least not right now.

Speaking to reporters for the first time in a couple of weeks on Wednesday, Ford was peppered with questions about staffing shortages and other difficulties the province's health-care system currently faces. Over the long weekend, roughly two-dozen hospitals in Ontario had to curtail services, including shutting down certain operations, the Ontario Nurses' Association estimated.

Ford on Wednesday played down the challenges faced on a provincewide basis, and defended how his government's managed the health-care system.

He said that nine-of-10 patients entering hospitals for emergencies finish their visit "within target times," and that surgeries are up 90 per cent compared to pre-pandemic rates.

Ford also defended the government's continued use of Bill 124 — legislation it passed limiting pay raises for public sector workers, including nurses — by talking up a one-time $5,000 "retention bonus" for nurses that the Progressive Conservatives created and that the government is in the midst of distributing.

The government is also working with the College of Nurses of Ontario to recognize more internationally-educated nurses' credentials, Ford emphasized. So far 760 foreign-trained nurses have been added to Ontario's health-care system, the premier said.

Ford didn't announce any new government initiatives to beat back against capacity challenges at Ontario hospitals.

"One-hundred-per cent, we need more people," Ford said. "Are we willing to get more people? We're doing everything in our power to get more people on board."

Ford's comments were reminiscent of those by his recently appointed Health Minister Sylvia Jones from a day earlier. Jones told the Toronto Star that already-strained staffing levels at hospitals have been made worse by it being vacation season, and by health-care workers being infected with COVID-19, due to the circulation of its highly contagious BA.5 subvariant.

Ford also tried addressing the situation before he took questions.

He highlighted that Ontario's not alone in facing a health-care staffing challenge, and that "every province — every premier, all 13 of us — is feeling the same pressures as Ontario." Current shortages are the latest example of why the federal government needs to increase the share of health-care costs it pays, he said.

"We're going to continue asking the federal government to step up and do their fair share," Ford said. "There's never been a more important time to do so."

After Ford's comments on Wednesday, the federal health minister's office said in a statement to QP Briefing that the federal government has "clearly demonstrated that we are willing to do our part in ensuring the sustainability and accessibility of the universal publicly funded health-care system," pointing to the $72 billion it's spent on "the health of Canadians" since the beginning of the pandemic. This amount included $11.25 billion spent on bilateral long-term care, mental-health, and home-care agreements with provinces, funding to speed up the expansion of virtual care, and to address surgical backlogs — much of which is outside of what provinces can spend on improving hospital capacity or the size of the health-care workforce.

No fast fix coming for Ontario’s inundated hospitals: Ford

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