“(Brampton Civic Hospital) is in constant 'Code Gridlock'. Initially, Code Gridlock a few years ago used to occur the majority of the time, now it is the new normal… What (Code Gridlock) means is when patient needs exceed hospital resources,” Gill said. “Often times you will see patients lying in the hallways for as far as the eye can see and elective surgeries and elective diagnostics are often cancelled because there is nowhere to place those patients.”

The Urgent Care Centre at the new Peel Memorial site, which opened in 2017, was built to accommodate 10,000 patients per year and is already operating at 587 per cent above capacity, seeing more than 75,000 patients each year.

The second phase of the new Peel Memorial Hospital has been approved but is only in the early planning stages and remains many years away from completion, and Gill said the 200 beds slated for the site fall well short of the 850 needed to bring Brampton up to the provincial average.

Brampton features the lowest number of hospital beds per capita in Ontario at 0.9 beds per 1,000 residents compared to the provincial average of 2.3 beds.

Gill added Brampton receives the lowest per capita funding in the province at $937 per resident and the second lowest in Canada. The provincial average is approximately $2,000 per resident.

CDO accused the Ford government of violating the Canada Health Care Act for not providing adequate funding to meet basic health care needs in Brampton, adding the province cut hours at the Peel Memorial urgent care centre in July 2019.

“The tragic part is that as we continue to be neglected, our health care crisis continues to escalate as our population growth continues to increase at an astronomical rate,” Gill said.

Brampton South PC MPP Prabmeet Sarkaria issued a statement shortly after council’s declaration.

“I am pleased that Brampton City Council continues to support my efforts to expand Peel Memorial Hospital. After years of inaction under the previous Government, hospitals were left underfunded and hallway healthcare had become the norm," he said. "Premier Ford and our Government have made it clear that we are committed to protecting what matters most – health care.”

"Most importantly, I was pleased to work with the Ministry of Health to provide William Osler Health with $500,000 to complete their Phase II work at Peel Memorial. Myself and our community eagerly await William Osler’s completion of their Phase II proposal, as this is critical to my advocacy at Queen’s Park for the expansion of Peel Memorial Hospital,” Sakaria added.

In addition to declaring a health care emergency, the motion also includes a request for immediate funding to complete the second phase of Peel Memorial.

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