Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath put the Liberal government’s health-care spending under a critical microscope while in Brampton May 19

Horwath and Bramalea-Gore-Malton MPP Jagmeet Singh, who is also the NDP deputy leader, toured an India Rainbow Community Services of Peel office in Brampton and visited Brampton Civic Hospital to speak with frontline health-care workers and discuss a Liberal fiscal approach the New Democrats insist has resulted in cuts to hospital care.

Horwath said hospital care in Brampton is suffering because of Liberal cuts.

She called for stable, predictable funding that at least keeps pace with inflation and population growth.

Ontario hospitals are experiencing reductions in nursing staff, overcrowding and bed closures under Premier Kathleen Wynne’s stewardship, the New Democrats said.

More than 1,440 nursing positions have been cut since the start of 2015 because hospital base funding has been frozen for the last four years, according to Horwath.

“The Liberals closed Peel Memorial Hospital in 2007, and, instead of replacing it with a new hospital, they’re building a facility that doesn’t have important hospital services like an ER,” Horwath said in a news release. “With a growing community like Brampton, people need to know they can get care when and where they need it.”

Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown visited Brampton Civic Hospital the previous weekend and raised his concerns about overcrowding in the legislature.

“Beds in hospital hallways should never be the norm in Ontario. The patients of Brampton and Peel region deserve more from their government,” Brown said. “Will this government commit to giving Brampton Civic Hospital the resources they need? Will they promise no other patients will have to wait on a stretcher in a hallway?”

The Liberals have accused Horwath of “misleading Ontarians” with selective and inaccurate information about the province’s nursing levels.