Well being-care staff, union representatives, nurses and PSWs joined organizers with the native representatives of the Ontario Well being Coalition in a noontime protest Monday in opposition to privatization inside well being care.
“Our message is that we need to elevate the alarm that Doug Ford is trying to denationalise our health-care and that we’re not going to face by in Windsor-Essex and watch that occur,” stated Tracey Ramsey, co-chair of the Windsor-Essex Well being Care Coalition.
Ramsey joined a number of dozen protesters on the nook of Walker and Tecumseh Roads who held indicators and attracted honks from motorists. Comparable protests have been staged in Toronto, Waterloo, Niagara and Ottawa by the health-care coalition.
In August, the provincial authorities introduced a plan to spice up privately delivered however publicly coated companies. The federal government stated it is going to make investments extra to extend surgical procedures in pediatric hospitals and current non-public clinics coated by OHIP. It stated it is also contemplating choices for additional growing surgical capability by growing the variety of these procedures carried out at “impartial well being amenities.”
On the time, Well being Minister Sylvia Jones stated Ontario must be “daring, revolutionary and inventive” when searching for methods to enhance the well being system.
Ramsey factors to non-public clinics getting used to ship well being care and nurses who work for personal corporations being introduced into hospitals to Bolster staffing ranges.
She says the federal government must be funding the general public health-care system to higher offset shortages of workers and maintain ICUs, ERs and maternity companies open.
“We noticed all through the pandemic all these non-public clinics popping up for testing,” she stated.
“They nonetheless exist, non-public labs, non-public companies like [cataract surgeries] like surgical procedures that basically are the unlucky the upkeep of companies which are occurring in our hospital are being pulled out into non-public clinics the place persons are going to entry that care.”
“We now have many individuals in our area who’ve gone to those non-public clinics and have stated they’ve acquired substandard care,” she stated.
Addictions counselor Marty Bevan, one of many protesters on the rally, stated the province had “dropped the ball.”
“I used to be simply considering they should drop a complete bunch of coal in entrance of Doug Ford’s workplace as a result of that is all he deserves for Christmas,” he stated.
Ramsey stated he does not need to see a US-style of well being care the place individuals who cannot afford companies go bankrupt.
The province, nonetheless, says Ontarians will all the time have the ability to use their OHIP playing cards to obtain health-care companies throughout the province.
“We’re proud that Ontario has and can proceed to have the one of many largest publicly funded health-care programs on the planet, and this yr alone our authorities has invested $77.5 billion into this method to proceed to supply Ontarians with the care they want , once they want it,” a well being ministry spokesperson stated in a press release.