Tuesday January 31 via Zoom, 7 – 8:30 pm
All members, supporters and allies please join this emergency online meeting as we plan to mount a major and urgent fightback against Ford’s initiative to privatize our public hospitals.
Last week, the Ford government announced their plans to build new for-profit surgical/diagnostic hospitals and expand for-profit clinics. At the same time, the Ford government has left our public hospitals with operating rooms that are closed in the evenings, on weekends, for days and months at a time, or even permanently, due to inadequate funding and staffing to run them. Similarly, MRIs and other diagnostics in public hospitals have been limited due to inadequate funding and staffing. Now, after having worsened the staffing crisis in public hospitals and having done nothing to ramp up public hospitals to operate to their capacity, Ford is launching privatization of their core services as if it is a “solution”. It is the old formula: create a crisis and privatize.
The private for-profit clinics that already exist in Ontario and across Canada are ground zero for extra-billing patients thousands of dollars for medically-needed diagnostic tests and surgeries. In addition, they routinely “upsell”, manipulating patients into paying for medically unnecessary add-ons. It is already a very serious problem, and those for-profit clinics only do a small portion of what Ford is planning.
We are deeply concerned. The plan that Ford is now putting into action poses a fatal threat to public medicare in our province and our country. We are going to do everything in our power to stop this privatization.
We have some ideas to mount a fightback that could stop them if we can build it big enough. Please join us.
Tuesday January 31 via Zoom, 7 – 8:30 pm
Please register and fill in the information here (you will receive the Zoom link by email after you register): https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZApd-upqDksG9PtSt5qAbsgMDZ3VnVAY6Zd
What can you do right now?
With our hospitals in crisis and plans to privatize public hospital services are being announced, it is vital that we have a strong show of support to tell the Ford government in no uncertain terms that they do not have a mandate from Ontarians to privatize our public health care. We need to get as many people as possible to scare the Ford government away from their plans to privatize and do nothing to help the crisis in our hospitals.
You can help by:
· We need to show that those who oppose the privatization of our health care are a major force. Please count yourself in as a “Public Medicare Defender” and get your friends, colleagues and families to do so also. Sign up here: https://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/
· Help educate our communities about the issues. Hand out leaflets in your community, place of worship or work. Printable leaflet is here: https://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/wp-content/uploads/Public-Medicare-Defender-Leaflet.pdf (NOTE: this leaflet will be updated tomorrow Jan. 24 to reflect the current announcement and plans of the Ford government).
· Fill in and share this survey with your seniors’ organization, patient group, community group, friends, family and neighbours to collect evidence on what patients are being charged in private clinics. You can fill it in online here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd0SYm3eHDxx2tYPxKOCSmSeeR8jiuqPsUH76Uu3vv8tT2jOQ/viewform?usp=sf_link or the printable version here: https://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/wp-content/uploads/final-survey-re-private-clinics-extra-billing.pdf