Despite opening with great fanfare earlier this year, problems with overcrowding and understaffing persist at the new Corner Brook hospital, conservatives say.

Western Memorial Regional Hospital officially opened its doors on June 2.

PC leader Tony Wakeham says images and stories of patients waiting on stretchers in corridors are already starting to emerge.

“Did they build it big enough?” Wakeham asked. He says the expectation is that a new facility would be able to meet the region’s needs, “but it’s clearly not able to do that.”

Wakeham also accuses the government of making promises to provide services and then failing to keep them.

He says no radiation oncologists have been hired yet, although all the equipment is on site and ready to go. Wakeham says construction of the hospital began five years ago and the recruitment process should have started at the same time.

VOCM News has contacted NL Health Services for comment.