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In response to the government’s plan to issue new licenses to for-profit clinics this fall, OCHU and OHC are demanding that money be invested in public hospitals.
TORONTO – Symbolizing the threat of plans to privatize hospital operations, a 15-foot replica of the Trojan Horse visited legislators in Queen’s Park today. The metaphor was deployed by CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU-CUPE) and the Ontario Health Coalition, which called on the Ford government to scrap plans to privatize operations and instead invest in public hospitals.
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A reference to Greek mythology, “The Trojan horse represents a gift, which, when accepted, threatens the recipient,” said Michael Hurley, president of OCHU-CUPE. “The false promise here is that privatization of operations is the solution to long waits. In fact, privatization diverts money and staff from public hospitals to for-profit private clinics. As a result, waiting times in the public system are lengthening as staff shortages lead to service closures. Meanwhile, These private clinics charge out-of-pocket costs, which are unaffordable for most people. Ultimately, they reduce need-based access, increase wait times and damage the public hospital system.
Hurley said a new study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal showed startling results: surgical rates for cataract surgery rose by 22 percent for the richest people in Ontario while it decreased by nine percent for the lowest income-earners.
This is consistent with the experience of other countries that have experimented with private surgical delivery. The study supports Ontario Health Coalition research showing that patients are being charged up to $8,000 at private clinics.
According to the union and health coalition, “these allegations are often manipulative and unethical, and in many cases are clear violations of public medical law.”
The Ford government has expanded the delivery of private services that are generally offered in public hospitals including cataract surgery and diagnostic tests. This autumn, the government will issue new licenses to private clinics and provide funding to carry out 100,000 MRI and CT scans.
“Private non-profit clinics and hospitals are 2 to 3 times more expensive than public hospitals. The Ford administration is taking public tax funds for health care away from local hospitals to give it to more expensive for-profit clinics,” said Natalie Mehra, executive director of the Health Coalition. Ontario. “Even worse, for-profit clinics threaten public medicine and cause distress to patients, charge elderly people with pensions thousands of dollars illegally for necessary operations and manipulate them to pay extra that is not necessary.”
The two organizations instead demanded that the government invest in public hospitals to increase staff and capacity, which already have the infrastructure to provide more services but are underfunded.
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“Ontario currently funds its public hospitals at the lowest rates in Canada, with the lowest staffing levels and bed capacity in the entire country,” said Sharon Richer, OCHU-CUPE secretary-treasurer. “However, the Ontario Conservatives are moving more than a billion dollars a year away from public hospitals to private clinics, hospitals and staffing agencies. The solution is to add enough new hospital beds and staff over the next 10 years to meet the needs of an aging population and The government also needs to close the loophole that exempts some jobs from paying health taxes that will generate more than enough to offset the costs.
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See the source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241004139567/en/
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For more information, contact:
Zaid Noorsumar
CUPE communication
znoorsumar@cupe.ca
647-995-9859
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