Niagara Centre NDP MPP Jeff Burch has sent off a letter to the health minister asking why a local resident has been waiting two years for a surgery, that may save her chances of having children.
Burch says one of his constituent's contacted him about her young friend who has been on an urgent surgical waitlist for two years to remove a fist-sized mass from an ovary.
There are concerns that the mass may have grown larger, and her entire ovary may have to be removed by the time she gets onto an operating table.
“She is now 26,” Ms. Remigio says of her friend. “ . . . this is atrocious that a young female hoping to have a family is having to deal with this pathetic health care system . . . ”
The woman waiting for surgery is a newcomer to Canada and is anxious to speak out publicly.
Her friend, Ms. Remigio has raised the issue with Burch.
Here is a copy of Burch's letter:
November 27, 2024
Open Letter
Re: Mary K. Remigio; broken health care system
Dear Ms Jones:
Constituent Mary K Remigio is worried sick about a young friend who has been waiting two years on an “urgent” surgical list to have a fist-sized mass removed from an ovary.
As a retired health care worker, Ms Remigio knows from experience the mass may have grown larger since the young woman’s MRI. The entire ovary may have to be removed by the time she gets onto an operating table.
“She is now 26,” Ms Remigio says of her friend. “ . . . this is atrocious that a young female hoping to have a family is having to deal with this pathetic health care system . . . ”
Ms Remigio contacted me so her friend doesn’t risk the potential fallout of making waves. The friend is a newcomer to Canada. Ms Remigio, on the other hand, has been here her whole life. She’s seen Ontario’s health care system disintegrate into rubble since 2018.
She says she’s heard you blame the opposition NDP for not doing enough to maintain health care when the party was in power in the early 1990s.
“I was working in the hospitals then, when there was an abundance of physicians and surgeons,” Ms Remigio says. “Her statements are false . . . surgical waitlists are deplorable.”
Ms Remigio is frustrated that operating rooms at the Niagara Health hospital in Welland sit idle while people like her friend wait years for urgent surgery.
"How is this justifiable?” she asks.
I look forward to hearing your answer.
Sincerely yours,