Residents of Windsor-Essex who are worried about the rise of privatized healthcare in Ontario will gather for a rally on Saturday.
The Ontario Health Coalition is organizing a protest outside the constituency office of Windsor-Tecumseh MPP Andrew Dowie.
This coalition, which has hosted similar events across the province, is urging Queen’s Park to prioritize funding for public hospitals instead of private clinics.
“The privatization [Premier Doug] Ford is undertaking is unprecedented,” read a release from the coalition. “Since the inception of public hospitals and the 1973 ban on private hospitals, no government has expanded private clinics like this. The majority of the new licenses are for private for-profit facilities, and a number of them are owned by for-profit chain corporations.”
The provincial government defends its move to expand private clinics for procedures such as cataract surgery and orthopedic treatment, arguing that this helps reduce wait times for patients needing these treatments.
However, the Coalition isn’t convinced.
“If we don’t stop them, their own projected goal is to redirect 50 per cent of the surgeries from public hospitals to private [for-profit] facilities,” read the release. “The scale and scope of hospital privatization planned by Ford will undermine, perhaps fatally, our public hospital system.”
The rally begins Saturday at 1 p. m.
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