On Thursday, Dr. Robin Lennox, Shadow Minister for Primary Care, and MPP France Gélinas, Shadow Minister for Health, held a press conference at Queen’s Park warning Ontarians that the Ford government’s underfunding of hospitals is putting patients at serious risk and increasing the practice of “hallway medicine”.

Hallway medicine is a term that refers to patients being treated in hallways because of overcrowding in healthcare spaces – and is frequent in Ontario hospitals. 

“This government cannot pretend this is a surprise,” Gélinas said. “They were warned. They were shown the data. They heard from workers and hospital leaders. And they chose not to act. Hallway medicine exists because this government allows it to exist.”

“Patients need care now. Workers need support now. And this government keeps choosing not to deliver either.”

This press conference comes after the release of new data from the Investigative Journalism Bureau (IJB), revealing that more than 60 per cent of Ontario hospitals were in debt at the end of the 2025 fiscal year. At the end of 2025, Ontario hospitals owed more than $66 million.

Public financial statements from March 2025 showed that Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) owed $40 million on two lines of credit. By the end of 2025, Niagara Health System owed $3.6 million to a bank and paid more than $1 million in interest on short-term borrowings. 

Even if lines of credit are cleared, interest payments are still harshly impacting Ontario hospitals. For example, Perth and Smiths Falls District Hospital and Brockville General Hospital respectively paid $226,000 and $214,429 in bank interest in the same fiscal year.

The IJB’s publication noted that Ontario spends less on healthcare per person than any other province in Canada and only one third of the provincial budget for healthcare goes to hospitals. 

“Hospitals are being pushed into debt, while patients are treated in hallways, nurses are burned out, and care is being cut,” Gélinas and Lennox said in a joint statement. 

Hallway healthcare has been an issue for several years under Ford’s government and it only continues to worsen as hospitals remain underfunded, sink deeper into debt and healthcare workers are forced to choose which patients are “hallway-appropriate”. Practicing hallway healthcare poses serious risks to patients well being and their fundamental right to health privacy. 

Ford’s Conservatives are yet to respond to the ONDP’s statements or questions from the IJB on this issue. In the meantime, many of Ontario’s hospital patients remain in the halls.