Thank you very much, Chair.
Here we are, nine years into a coalition government that has really done nothing but allow this public health care system that we all hold so dear, and one that I worked in for many years, to decay.
How do we know that? In this committee we've often talked about data, so the question then becomes this: What evidence is there to say that there is decay in the public health care system at the hands of the NDP-Liberal coalition? Where to begin, Chair, is probably the bigger question.
The most obvious difficulty that Canadians have is access to the system. When you begin to look at access to the system that we have, of course everybody around this table would clearly realize that it is predicated upon the fact of having access to primary care. Primary care providers, whether they be nurse practitioners or family physicians, allow folks to have that requisition for blood work or an X-ray or a referral to see a specialist.
In spite of the fact that we want to return to this grandstanding motion, which was tabled and interrupted our important witnesses related to the opioid study, what we know very clearly and very simply is that, when Canadians don't have access via a primary care provider, it doesn't matter if we have the best-formed health care system in the galaxy. I say that not to be hyperbolic or to sound foolish, but to outline the fact that without access, regardless of the system, there is nothing. There is nothing for those 6.5 million Canadians who do not have access to the health care system that has been held so dear by Canada for an incredibly long time.
I would suggest to you, Chair, that certainly would be the first metric that we want to look at. We know it has deteriorated over time. We know that 20 to 25 years ago people would have had their pick of a family doctor. Family doctors made house calls, etc. What have we seen happen to the system under the NDP-Liberal coalition is this incredible degradation of access. As I said previously, it certainly doesn't matter what system you have if you can't access it.
I think there are a few other things that we need to outline. There's a horrific story of a gentleman in Quebec who had a long history of paralysis. The sad thing is that he waited so long for care in an emergency room that he developed horrific bedsores. I'm sure that many folks here are not quite aware that bedsores are incredibly difficult to heal. They are often open wounds, let's put it that way, that persist for a very long time. That can require significant nursing care, significant off-loading of the area to allow them to heal, which becomes very difficult if you have a problem with paralysis.
When you think of that, this gentleman developed these bedsores because he had to wait in an emergency room on a stretcher for days, in an inappropriate setting for someone with his care needs. I'm going to come back to that story in a second.
I wish I could tell folks around this table that it was the only story we heard of system failure in the emergency room.
As I return to Nova Scotia every weekend, as many of my colleagues do, I would challenge anyone around this table to tell me they have not heard a story from a constituent about how long they waited in the emergency room. Sadly, it has almost become an abhorrent badge of honour to say, “Wow, you know, I waited in the emergency room for 16 hours.” We hear these stories. As a former physician providing care, I find that unacceptable.
Even in the days when I practised in the emergency room, which wasn't that long ago, often if I worked a Friday night till 11 o'clock, midnight or one in the morning and someone was coming on the next shift, I always thought it was my goal to basically have the waiting room empty when the overnight physician came on. That way, he had an opportunity to look after the most seriously ill patients who were inside the emergency room, perhaps waiting to go to intensive care or for test results to come back, who had been in a traumatic accident or who had suffered a stroke or a heart attack, etc. That was always my goal: to have that waiting room emptied so that the person coming on overnight could have that very fresh start.
As I said, when all of us around this table go home every weekend, I would challenge you to say how many of the people who are voters in your community have come up to you and said, “I have had to wait innumerable hours in the waiting room.” I would love to do a straw poll around the room, but I know that's perhaps not something that people would like to answer. We know it affects Newfoundland. We know it affects Quebec. We know it affects Ontario, both urban and rural. We know it affects P.E.I. I know that, Chair, because people from P.E.I., when I've been there, have come and told me that it affects P.E.I. I know it affects B.C. and Alberta. Even Saskatchewan is affected by this.
As we begin to understand the difficult nature of this, this is what has happened under this coalition. It's beyond the eleventh hour of a struggling government. It's the 23rd hour of a struggling government that now wants to bring forward these motions to say Canadians should entrust them to fix health care. Are you kidding me? What credibility does the Liberal-NDP coalition have to say they can fix health care when it has done nothing but spiral negatively in the last nine years? They have no credibility.
That is not to mention a fact that somebody, who will remain nameless, told me. I had the good fortune of being home this weekend at the first annual Nova Scotia Stampede. We had a charity hockey game while I was there, and one of the hockey players, who was notable—and I will not name him, because I didn't ask his permission, although he told a great story—had been to the emergency room with his children. He said they were there with a child who perhaps wasn't that unwell, but he saw another child with a broken arm. He said, “I know I'm not a physician, but I could tell this child's arm was broken,” and that child waited 14 hours in a waiting room with a broken arm.
I realize that, yes, there's a triage system, and we could argue that everybody knew the arm was broken, etc., but as Canadians, doesn't that pull at your heartstrings? This was a child waiting with an obviously disfigured arm who didn't get the service they required for 14 hours.
I wish it was, as we say, a “once in a blue moon” occurrence, but it's not. I know people who have waited so long with a laceration that by the time they had an opportunity to see a treating physician, they didn't even require stitches anymore. Their wound had healed, basically, and I'm not talking about some miraculous healing. What we're talking about is a wound that was held appropriately and tightly, and after the terrible amount of time that had elapsed, again, the wound did not need suturing, which appears fantastical, I know. However, these are stories that everyone around this table has already heard.
If I might return to my story of metrics related to the gentleman who had paralysis and ended up with severe bedsores after waiting many days—not hours; we're talking about days—in the emergency room on an inappropriate surface, who then.... I can barely even say this out loud, but again, it was reported in the news. I'm not making something up here, but it's hard to speak the words. That gentleman chose MAID because of the bedsores that happened to him at the hands of a health care system in the greatest country in the world. Again, that happened under the NDP-Liberal coalition's watch. That's when it happened.
We also know that things have gotten worse over time. The system has, perhaps, been struggling for a long time, but we know that, at the current time, wait times to have treatment, from after you see a family physician to seeing a specialist, has increased to the worst it has been in 30 years. That's three-zero, not 13. The average wait in this country, after seeing a family doctor—because, of course, as we all know, you need a referral from a family physician to see a specialist—has ballooned to 27 weeks, which, of course, is half of a year.
Again, I know we have physician colleagues here, and I appreciate that. I would suggest that, in most cases, when a family physician has exhausted all of their knowledge, their training and their experience, when the tests they have ordered and when the information has been assimilated, the expectation, and I know my expectation as a former family doctor, would be that I have done all the work that's required, but now you have to wait six more months to have the opinion of a specialist whose extra training and extra experience is required to either make a diagnosis or to confirm treatment. That has now ballooned to more than six months. That's not acceptable. That just isn't. That's not the expectation of Canadians, and it is certainly not the expectation of family physicians who serve the patients inside the system.
We know that, in many communities, the wait time for getting an appointment to have blood work done is more than a month. As we begin to look at these metrics.... I think that's where our focus needs to be, as we begin to talk about allowing a motion to happen on another study from the very group of people—the NDP-Liberal coalition—who allowed the system to fall apart. It seems rather sanctimonious and frivolous to me.
What other metrics do we have to say that the NDP-Liberal coalition has failed health care in this country?
If there's anybody who would like to.... Unlike some of my Liberal colleagues, I don't have dealings with this company. I don't have a financial interest in that company. That's not how I work. That being said, there's a great website called SecondStreet.org. When you begin to look at that, some of the work it has done is based around how many people have died in this country on a waiting list, which is absolutely shocking. Does that mean you're waiting for a CT scan? Are you waiting for an MRI? Are you waiting six months, as I already spoke about, to see a specialist? Are you simply waiting for a blood test? Are you waiting for something perhaps more invasive like a bone marrow transplant, etc.?
As you begin to look at those numbers, they are absolutely shocking. The estimate is that between 17,000 to 30,000 Canadians die every year on a waiting list. I'll say that again, 17,000 to 30,000 Canadians die every year on a waiting list.
As you begin to fathom that number, remember that these are Canadians. They are not some anonymous person you don't know. These are your mothers, your sisters, your aunts, your uncles, your fathers, your brothers, all of those people. All of those people are people who can die on a waiting list.
I spoke to a gentleman just yesterday. Again, it's another unfathomable story. He has a known cancer in his tonsil. He knows he has it. It's been biopsied; it's been diagnosed. There is a robotic surgery available to him to have this cancer treated. You can well imagine you're going to treat tonsillar cancer. The hope would be that you will have a successful surgery. Perhaps you might be able to avoid the terrible radiation, the dry mouth that comes after that and disfigurement as well. His surgeon only has access to the robotic surgical assist one Thursday every two weeks.
As we begin to look at the failing system that exists before us at the hands of the NDP-Liberal coalition, as I said, it becomes a bit rich as to movement of this debate, because what have the NDP-Liberals done over the last nine years with respect to health care besides destroy it? Nothing.
We have also heard the Prime Minister stand in the House of Commons, and say—I remember it happened when I first came here a little better than three years ago—that he was going to provide Canadians with 7,500 doctors, nurses and nurse practitioners to this system to make it better. When you look, objectively, at the metrics, you have to understand that the system has gotten worse and worse, and the number of physicians continues to decline over time.
Of course, those out there watching will ask, “What are you going to do about it? What would a Conservative government...?” We've already announced a program for international medical graduates. We know there are at least 20,000 physicians who are here in this country. They have practised medicine, trained in medicine abroad and have come to this country, but are not able to practise their trade. It is an incredibly sad indictment on the system run by the NDP-Liberal coalition. This is a terrible joke. I'll preface my remarks with that.
Do you know what? Everybody has heard this: In Toronto, don't call an ambulance. Call a taxi, because your taxi driver will be a physician who was trained elsewhere. It's a terrible joke. Sadly, we know, as I said, that 20,000 physicians who trained outside of this country and have experience are living here but cannot access the system. As I go around the country and talk to Canadians, I say, “Conservatives have a plan.” To a person, Canadians say, “That is a very common-sense idea. Why would you not do that if someone is trained elsewhere and has experience?” As everyone says to me, the body is the same in country X as it is in Canada. I'm sure it's exactly the same. I'm sure it functions the same way. I'm sure the liver is still on the right side of the body. Yes, it is. Broken bones, lacerations and high blood pressure exist in every part of this world. We know diabetes exists in every part of this world.
Therefore, regarding folks who received their training and experience elsewhere, everybody says that, if they have that ability to practically prove their abilities, of course they should have a licence to practice in Canada and help treat Canadians. We know this is a win for the 6.5 million Canadians who need access to primary care. We also know it is a win for the physician who is here doing some other type of work and not able to practise.
I met a group of internationally trained physicians. One gentleman in particular told me a terrible story. He has not been able to practise as a physician. He was working as a security guard. Again, these are heartbreaking stories. His son said to this gentleman, “Dad, if you're a doctor, why do you go to work dressed as a security guard every day?” How do you explain that to your young child? “Well, I came to this country for an opportunity, and because of the barriers that exist here, I'm not able to work as a physician.”
Look at how Canada historically built this country. Many people came from elsewhere with training in medicine, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary skills, bricklaying, pipefitting, etc. They were electricians or carpenters. How did we welcome those folks back when the country was being built up? We welcomed them by saying, “Hey, let's see what you can do. Show us what you can do.” It was “Oh, here, watch me build this. Watch me do this. Watch me apply my trade.” Everybody agreed. “Wow, you know what you're doing.” Surprisingly, the body is not different in country X compared with here in Canada.
That's one example of a practical solution Canadians can receive from a common-sense Conservative government, one that says, “When you can prove your skills, we will have you going to work and providing services on behalf of Canadians.”
Chair, the other metric we need to look at is the failing health care system, which happened at the hands of the NDP-Liberal coalition and is related to services for veterans. On this side of the House, we know that mental health is health. My great friend Todd Doherty, champion of the 988 suicide prevention hotline, pushed and pushed, such that, in my mind, it never would have happened without him.
When we understand that and we understand that veterans are calling Veterans Affairs for help.... They're saying that they need to access mental health supports. They've struggled, they've served their country and they've signed on the dotted line. The answer, of course, in these terrible.... I wish someone would accuse me of hyperbole in making up these stories, but everybody knows they're true.
Everybody knows that there are veterans in this country who were reaching out for mental health help and who were offered medical assistance in dying—MAID. That was the offer. I don't know what they said—that they can't access it, it's too long to access it, their case is too difficult or whatever, so have they considered MAID?
This is not only a sad testimony as it relates to the failing health care system under this NDP-Liberal coalition, but it also relates to how we treat our veterans. I'm a proud veteran.