In an effort to pressure the Ford government into halting the privatization of the province’s hospitals, a rally was held Saturday morning in St. Thomas.
The London Health Coalition asserts the expansion of hospital privatization is costing patients thousands of dollars and taking away from local hospitals.
Speaking over the honking of horns, Peter Bergmanis, co-chair of the coalition told myFM the situation has become, “critical.”
Bergmanis continued, “We’ve never seen anything like the kind of cuts that have taken place to health care in any administration of a government in my entire working life. That’s over 40 years.”
He added, the Ford government has redirected thousands of surgeries from public hospitals to private, for-profit clinics and hospitals.
The umbrella organization, the Ontario Health Coalition, has complained to the Ford government that patients have been charged illegally and unethically in private clinics.
And nothing has been done, advised Bergmanis, with the province’s hospitals feeling the impact.
He pointed out that a petition is now being circulated urging the federal government to enforce the Canada Health Act.
The Act bans user fees and extra billing of patients and requires that medical fare be funded by taxes (through OHIP in Ontario) and provided without financial barriers, based on Canadians’ medical need and not how much money a person has.
And, no patient should be forced or manipulated into paying for cataract and other surgeries, MRIs and CT scans.
