childNorthern New Democrat Members of Provincial and Federal legislatures expressed their support for the expansion of the North Eastern Ontario Health Centre for Kids (NEO Kids).

Northern Ontario families are currently travelling long distances for their children’s treatment and NEO Kids would allow their children to be treated closer to home.

“In our work, we see the physical, financial, and emotional hardships created by long distance travel to Toronto, Ottawa, and London in order to get children the health care they need. We regularly see families in our offices who are experiencing this heavy burden of travel,” says NDP MP Charlie Angus (Timmins James Bay)

“Especially with the closing of the Northlander, there is additional stress related to travel for families with sick kids,” says MPP John Vanthof (Timiskaming-Cochrane)

The current clinic is facing a high demand, with patient volume more than doubling from total annual visits of 15,000 to 35,000. The NEO KIDS proposal offers increased levels of specialty care for sick children in Northeastern Ontario, which will lessen the burden of the extensive travel that is currently required.

“For the sake of our families, we need to see some leadership on this issue. We believe that it should be a priority to have medical care for our children closer to home in our region,” added MPP Gilles Bisson (Timmins-James Bay)