Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins says the province is working on a way to offer help to children who are not able to travel to the United States for life-saving surgeries due to a new travel restriction imposed by President Donald Trump.
“It has come to our attention that as a result of new travel restrictions, children who were scheduled to receive specialized life-saving surgeries in the United States are now being turned away,” Hoskins said in a press release issued through his office Friday. “These children are being turned away solely because of where they were born. As Ontarians, we have an obligation to respond when we know that we have the ability to help.”
The ban, implemented last week, prevents people travelling on passports from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States for 90 days.
It’s not clear how many children in need of life-saving surgeries are affected by the ban. However Hoskins said that Ontario has an obligation to help those affected.
“We are currently working on a broad humanitarian response to provide life-saving care to children whose surgeries have been cancelled,” Hoskins said in the statement. “Given that this is a critical time for these ill children, our ministry and Ontario’s specialized children’s hospitals, which provide best-in-the-world care feel the responsibility to act quickly.”
Hoskins said he is working with the federal government and Ontario hospitals, primarily the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, to determine whether there is an opportunity to help kids affected by the ban.
He said any help extended to children affected by the ban would not impact Ontario children waiting for care. He also reiterated that the offer of help extends to a small number of cases where children will die without specialized surgeries.
“We have capacity in Ontario to provide highly specialized care that is not widely available in the world.”
Speaking with CTV News Toronto, Premier Kathleen Wynne said this aid would not affect Ontario patients in hospitals.
“This isn’t about taking the place of an Ontario child or an Ontario patient, we have the capacity, we have the ability to help these children and that’s exactly why we’re doing it,” she said.
Wynne said the province is focusing on the children whose families were expecting that they would be able to get a lifesaving operation.
“I think that there isn’t anybody in Ontario who wouldn’t want to make sure that those kids have help and support,” she said.
The request for assistance came to Sick Kids from U.S. hospitals where critically ill children from the affected countries were scheduled to have surgeries.
Speaking with reporters Friday afternoon, Hoskins said the fact that those hospitals turned to Sick Kids is a testament to the high quality of care available in Ontario and that there are “very, very few facilities in the world” that are able to provide the needed surgeries, which include severe cardiac cases.
He said that it will be up to Sick Kids to assess which cases are appropriate to take on and the federal government would then have to expedite visas for those children.
“We’re at the very earliest stage of this, but I felt and our government felt it was important to indicate that we’re prepared to receive these children,” Hoskins said.
