TORONTO - Opposition parties are warning that health services are being cut by hospitals to avoid running illegal deficits.
Progressive Conservative health critic Elizabeth Witmer says hospitals are firing nurses and closing beds because they don't have enough money to maintain services.
But Premier Dalton McGuinty says his government has put more money each year toward health care.
By law, Ontario hospitals are forbidden from carrying deficits and some are balancing their books by closing beds and cutting jobs.
According to government figures, there were 52 hospitals in deficit at the end of September.
But the Ontario Hospital Association says a majority of the province's 159 public hospitals are facing "serious financial challenges."
