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News Release MRG Open Letter to Dennis Timbrell November 22, 1979 The Hon. Dennis Timbrell, Minister of Health, Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario. Dear Mr. Timbrell: We are disturbed by your continuing refusal to address the critical problems of the Ontario health care system, most recently evidenced by your insensitive, even cynical response to a petition signed by 275,000 Ontario residents. On behalf of the more than 100 Ontario physicians and medical students who are members of the Medical Reform Group, we take strong exception to your continuing attempts to minimize the problems currently faced by ourselves, our colleagues, and our patients. Crowded emergency departments, inadequate numbers of chronic care beds, overworked nursing and support staff, lack of opted-in consultants -- these are a daily fact of life for us, and no amount of statistical sleight-of-hand or political bombast can obscure this fact. The victim is the Ontario public. The more than a quarter of a million people who recently signed an NDP petition did so not because of information provided by the NDP or any other political party, but as a result of the frustrations they have encountered in their own dealings with the health care system. Your failure to recognize this is deplorable. Rather than spend $55,000 of the taxpayer's money to send your own partisan response to each person who signed the petition, we feel you would be well-advised to put the money where it is needed most -- into the health system and into research designed to correct its ills. As members of the Steering Committee of the Medical Reform Group of Ontario, we are Yours very truly, cc: Subject Headings: Abortion Rights Community Health Community Health Centres Drug Substitution Epidemiology Epidemiology/Community Medicine Health Administration Health Care Budgets Health Care Cost Containment Health Care Costs Health Care Delivery Health Care Finance & Fund-Raising Health Care in Canada Health Care in Ontario Health Care in the U.K. Health Care in the U.S. Health Care Myths Health Care Reform Health Care Resources Health Care Services Health Care Workers Health Clinics Health Determinants Health Economics Health Expenditures Health Issues Health Policy Health Policy/Seniors – Health Service Organizations Health/Social Justice Issues Health Statistics Health/Strategic Planning History Hospitals Labour Medicine Medical Associations Medical Costs/Foreign Medical Education Medical Ethics Medical Human Resources Medical Personnel Medical Research Funding Medicare Medication Use Medication Use/Seniors NAFTA/Health Occupational Health & Safety Patients' Rights Pharmaceuticals Physician Compensation Physician Human Resources Pro-Choice Issues Public Health Publications/Health Social Policy Women's Health Sources |