Brampton Mayor Linda Jeffrey has weighed in on the issue of overcrowding at Brampton Civic Hospital (BCH) after being called out by irate Brampton residents who say her reluctance to speak out against her former colleagues at Queen's Park speaks volumes.

Between 2016 and 2017 some 4,352 patients spent hours — and in some cases days — on gurneys parked in the hallways of the hospital, according to information unearthed from a Freedom of Information (FOI) requests by the Ontario NDP. The documents also reveal the systemic issue of overcrowding at Brampton’s only hospital.

In an open letter — penned to Bramptonians, Thursday, Nov. 2 — Jeffrey calls on Queen’s Park to fund hospital resources.

“Our community’s needs are not being met in a timely manner and this will only get worse if nothing changes,” Jeffrey writes. “In the short term the provincial government needs to immediately approve and start building phase two of the Peel Memorial Centre for Integrated Health and Wellness. Over the long term it is critical we move forward on a third hospital immediately, as by 2041 we will be a city of nearly one million residents.”

Jeffrey goes on to say the lack of quality health care in Brampton was what prompted her to run for provincial politics in the first place.

“I made a commitment then and there that I would do something to improve health care in our City. I ran for MPP, won, and then spent the next decade fighting for better funding and facilities every day I was at Queen’s Park. We eventually succeeded in opening Brampton Civic Hospital in 2007,” Jeffrey writes.

Chris Bejnar, co-chair of Citizens for a Better Brampton (CFBB), previously told The Guardian he and several other residents are disappointed by the Jeffrey’s silence given that Brampton taxpayers paid $60 million towards the redevelopment of Peel Memorial Centre for Integrated Health and Wellness (Peel Memorial).

Accessed documents show the Urgent Care Centre (UCC) at Peel Memorial has seen an unusual surge in volume of patients, and an infusion $14 million in funding would be needed to meet the existing demands placed on the facility.

“Brampton Civic Hospital has seen ‘only a minimal decrease’ in visits since the opening of Peel Memorial, and in fact Peel Memorial is transferring approximately four acutely ill patients per day back to Brampton Civic ‘that are then admitted and contribute to the in-patient bed capacity challenge,” Joanne Flewwelling, interim president and CEO of William Osler Health System (Osler), wrote to Scott McLeod, CEO of Central West LHIN in July via email.