Overcrowding at Brampton Civic isn’t a new issue, it’s persisted since the hospital opened since 2007.

Shocking numbers were released this week revealing that 4,352 have been treated in the facility’s hallways this year, sometimes for weeks at a time.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath held a roundtable in Brampton last month with a number of patients who shared harrowing stories of their time in the ER, including Hallway Patient 1, who shared what it was like for her spending five days in the hospital.

Another Brampton woman made headlines back in May after spending five days in a hospital hallway in pain while suffering from internal bleeding. The woman, Jamie-Lee Ball, has now become an advocate for better treatment and wait times for patients.

During her visit Horwath didn’t mince words — she put the crisis squarely on the shoulders of the Liberal government, stating Brampton’s hospital problem is due in large part to the negligence and under-funding of hospitals by the Liberal government across the province.

The issue has been building for some time. Bramptonians have been asking for a second full hospital for decades, and while Peel Memorial has eased some of the pressures from Brampton Civic through providing treatment for urgent care non-emergency issues, it hasn’t been nearly enough to handle Brampton’s rapidly-growing population.

Recently, the Province announced funding for six new beds in Brampton, which some call laughable given the current situation.

It all came to a head in a heated exchange between Horwath and Premier Kathleen Wynne on Wednesday in a session at Queen’s Park

Horwath, who was visibly passionate throughout the exchange, quoted Vicki McKenna the VP of Ontario Nurses Association who said, “The Premier must know the six temporary beds that she has offered at Brampton Civic will not help all of the 4,352 people who are forced to receive their treatment in a hospital hallway…why doesn’t the Premier have a real plan to begin undoing some of the damage she and her government have helped create in our hospitals in this province?”

Watch the exchange below:

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