A group of doctors, angry at the Liberal government over cuts to their compensation, is holding a health-care town hall in Scarborough Thursday for the candidates in the Scarborough—Rouge River byelection.

You can expect a fair amount of Liberal-bashing to take place.

According to the debate organizer, Concerned Ontario Doctors co-leader Kulvinder Gill, the Green, NDP and PC candidates have all confirmed their attendance at the debate, but Liberal candidate Piragal Thiru has declined. Small wonder, considering the group's opposition to his party's leader.

Vote! ?

Tell @Piragal @Kathleen_Wynne that @OntLiberal's reckless healthcare cuts must STOP#ScarboroughRougeRiver pic.twitter.com/7p6DJt197R

— Your Ontario Doctors (@OnCall4ON) August 19, 2016

Nevertheless, the Progressive Conservatives have picked up on his non-attendance as well, and turned it into something of a meme:

We can't possibly imagine why. #onpoli #CareNotCuts pic.twitter.com/CajCqBWJ1Z

— Ontario PC (@OntarioPCParty) August 25, 2016

The Concerned Ontario Doctors debate isn't the only focus on health care. Two weeks ago, PC Leader Patrick Brown and PC candidate Raymond Cho campaigned at a doctor's office, also slamming the Liberal government on Scarborough health care. On Thursday morning, NDP candidate Neethan Shan held a press conference alongside NDP health critic France Gélinas decrying overcrowding in Ontario's hospital system, particularly in Scarborough.

Standing in front of a placard that read, "Scarborough deserves respect," they revealed a document they'd received via a Freedom of Information request to the Rouge Valley Centenary hospital, which shows its acute care occupancy rate was 99 per cent for the first quarter of the fiscal year, until June 23, 2016. In the fourth quarter of 2014-15, the hospital was 114-per-cent full.

"What does that mean? It means the same thing everywhere. When the hospital is full it means a backlog in the emergency department," Gélinas said.

Gélinas looked at the hospital's emergency statistics, which found that nine out of 10 patients with complex needs spent more than 12 hours in emergency, which is above the provincial standard of eight hours.

When emergency rooms are crowded, patients end up treated in the hallways. "There is no way to provide quality care in a hallway," she said.

Shan said he was "appalled," as a Scarborough resident, to learn that hospitals were operating at an unsafe capacity.

Gélinas mentioned other problems in Scarborough — that the operating rooms of Scarborough General were built in 1956 and parking costs at Scarborough hospitals are so high it's deterring people from completing their follow-up care.

"And when you look at some of the other hospitals in Scarborough, their emergency rooms were built before I was born — and I am old," she said. "They are the oldest in all of Ontario."

Shan said it's important for him to take part in the Concerned Ontario Doctors' debate to talk about health care. Their central fight with the government — over the physician services agreement that concerns what doctors are paid — has made matters worse in the health care system, he said.

"The system is already in silent crisis, and when you create this chaos, further to that, you're exasperating the problem and that's what Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals are doing," Shan said.

The Concerned Ontario Doctors debate will be posted online once it's complete, according to the organizers. You can check back at qpbriefing.com for full coverage.

Scarborough—Rouge River byelection turns to health care

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