Rally organizers are demanding the provincial authorities to revoke licensing non-public, for-profit clinics and to spend money on public hospitals
A dramatic image greeted protesters and rally organizers at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital’s entrance gates on Friday: a 15-foot picket Trojan Horse.
Unveiled by the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU-CUPE) and the Halton Well being Coalition, an affiliate of the Ontario Well being Coalition (OHC), the Trojan Horse symbolizes what organizers name “deception” within the provincial authorities’s plan to denationalise hospital surgical procedures and diagnostic assessments—a “becoming emblem for the union and coalition’s protest in opposition to such privatization.”
As an alternative, as a part of the organizations’ five-week tour across the province, the OCHU-CUPE and OHC are urging the Ontario authorities to revoke non-public, for-profit licensing and to spend money on the province’s public hospitals.
They consider this might create 16,000 hospital beds and produce in additional healthcare workers, like medical doctors and nurses, to satisfy sufferers’ wants.
Supporters of revoking the privatization of hospital surgical procedures and diagnostic assessments, together with members of CUPE and Unifor, attend the Nov. 8 rally at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital. Ramona Leitao
In Could 2023, Ontario handed Invoice 60, also called the Your Well being Act, which permits extra non-public clinics to supply OHIP-covered surgical procedures—a measure the provincial authorities argues will assist cut back process wait instances.
Nevertheless, unions, healthcare employees, and Oakville residents on the rally consider these steps towards healthcare privatization finally hurt the general public.
Halton Well being Coalition member Hailey Ford holds the microphone for Ontario Well being Coalition member Helen Lee, as she speaks on the Nov. 8 rally. Ramona Leitao
“The funding that the Ford government is giving to private clinics is funding that should go to public hospitals,” mentioned Helen Lee, an OCH member, on the rally.
“Privatization redirects money and staff from public hospitals to private, for-profit clinics,” added OCHU-CUPE secretary-treasurer Sharon Richer, talking to Oakville Information.
“We’re seeing wait times in the public system getting longer due to staff shortages, as these private, for-profit clinics are poaching healthcare workers.”
Richer additionally famous that non-public clinics typically cater to wealthier sufferers who can afford to pay out-of-pocket prices for surgical procedures and diagnostic assessments.
“In the meantime, center class and decrease class folks aren’t capable of pay out of pocket as a result of they’re paying for hire as a result of the price of residing is so excessive,” she mentioned.
Ontario Council of Hospital Unions secretary-treasurer Sharon Richer speaks on the Nov. 8 protest. Ramona Leitao
An August 2024 examine by the Canadian Medical Affiliation Journal revealed a 22 per cent elevate for Ontario’s wealthiest sufferers to bear cataract surgical procedures in non-public, for-profit clinics. In distinction, the charges of surgical procedures fell by 9 per cent for low-income sufferers.
Oakville particularly has an growing old inhabitants which might additionally endure the results of personal healthcare, says Hailey Ford, a member of the Halton Well being Coalition.
“Folks might have a look at Oakville and assume it is only a bunch of wealthy folks. That is not true,” she mentioned to Oakville Information. “Aged folks can’t afford this type of healthcare, however they want it.”
Earlier this yr, Hailey says her grandfather was hospitalized for a near-fatal coronary heart failure.
“He was informed that in the event you come by way of the emergency room, relatively than calling 9-1-1 and being taken in an ambulance, he would have died. He lives 5 minutes from right here,” she mentioned. “He was fortunate to outlive.”
Lee says her father, who was 94 when he handed, was being handled at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital when it was experiencing physician shortages, which resulted in Lee being within the hospital for almost 24 hours a day. She additionally seen shortcuts together with her dad’s and different sufferers’ remedies.
“On one go to to the ER, [I found that] my dad’s IV bag and antibiotic bag was taped to the wall,” which was as a consequence of short-staff not having the ability to discover IV poles, Lee mentioned.
On the protest, Ontario Well being Coalition member Helen Lee reveals a photograph of her and her father earlier than he handed away at 94 years previous. Lee says that she was advocating for a greater public healthcare system after seeing what her father needed to expertise throughout his closing days at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital. Ramona Leitao
However it’s not simply aged folks in Oakville, whose well being are in danger, Ford says. It is everybody.
“I went to highschool right here, I went to elementary faculty right here and I see much more younger folks with well being points. Everyone seems to be sick, everybody wants care and simply because it is Oakville does not imply that everybody’s wealthy sufficient to afford it,” she informed Oakville Information.
“It is sick, it is harmful and it will kill folks,” Hailey mentioned. “They are going to be delay by a price ticket. They’ll delay looking for assist till it’s too late.”
