Ontario Premier Doug Ford slammed for 'distasteful' animal hospital joke

Premier Doug Ford’s joke about sending patients waiting for an MRI or a CT scan to a newly opened animal hospital is garnering criticism from opposition MPPs at Queen’s Park.

Ford made the comment Tuesday, at the grand opening of the King Animal Hospital in King City, Ont., a private veterinary facility.

"By the looks of it, we know where we can send the overflow patients now for MRIs and CT scans and everything else, so keep an extra room for some other patients," Ford said.

The flippant joke did not land with Ford's opposition, however.

"The fact that Doug Ford was able to make that joke yesterday revealed a lot. It showed the dire state of Ontario's healthcare system is a laughing matter to him," Dr. Adil Shamji, MPP for Don Valley East and Ontario Liberal Critic for Health, said in a news release.

"Nearly 10,000 Ontarians died while waiting for MRIs and CT scans last year alone, and the Premier of Ontario just joked that the hundreds of thousands of patients still waiting should line up like animals at a veterinary clinic."

Ford's office did not respond to CP24's inquiry about the premier's quip earlier this week. Instead, his camp underlined the investments it has made in Ontario's healthcare system since 2018.

"We are adding over 49 new MRI machines and 50 new CT scanners in hospitals across the province, increasing capacity to perform nearly 500,000 hours of MRI and CT scans," the statement reads.

In June, the average waiting time for MRIs in Ontario was 90 days and 81 days for CT scans. The province said the expansion will cut that wait time down to 28 days.

Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie did not find humour in Ford's joke either, and called it "disgraceful."

"After six years of deliberately underfunding our healthcare system in order to justify his agenda to sell it off and private, Ford is now joking that if you're waiting for an MRI, you should just visit a veterinary clinic," Crombie wrote on X.

Former NDP MPP Faisal Hassan for York South—Weston called Ford's remark a "staggering disconnect from the harsh realities of Ontario's healthcare crisis."

"As a premier, he has a duty to tackle the system's challenges head-on, not trivialize the struggles of patients and healthcare workers," Hassan said in a post on X.

Ontario NDP leader Marit Stiles, meanwhile, slammed Ford's comments as "part of the plan."

"Doug Ford & his politicians are dismantling our healthcare system & giving it over to folks like Galen Weston to make more billions off," Stiles wrote in a post on X.

As of January 2023, Ontarians could consult with pharmacists for ailments like cold sores, pink eye and urinary tract infections. Now, the Ford government is considering expanding the number of health concerns pharmacists can treat – a move that drew criticism due to the apparent privatization of healthcare services.

"If I had $1 for every time someone said, 'I need to get an appointment with my family physician, I can't get it,'" Ford said at a press conference in late July in response to the criticism.

The Ford government is considering expanding the scope of services to include administering publicly-funded vaccines like tetanus and shingles, as well as treating and prescribing head lice, strep throat, and minor sleep disorders like insomnia.

Although there are 2.5 million Ontarians without access to a family doctor, the Ontario Medical Association has previously called the move a "quick fix" to a problem that cannot be easily resolved.

With files from CP24's Joshua Freeman and The Canadian Press