Privatization of care will make wait times longer, put strain on staff, Hamilton hospital workers say
CBC
Hamilton health-care workers are rallying against the provincial government's plan to allow more private clinics to offer certain publicly funded surgeries and procedures — and calling on leaders of the city's health-care institutions to support their fight.
Pouring rain on Monday didn't stop at least 100 health-care workers, union representatives and supporters from showing up at the St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton location on Charlton Avenue East to voice their concerns.
One nurse told CBC Hamilton she worried that an increase in privatized services will impact the quality of care and increase the strain on workers.
"Privatization is not going to help any of us," said Jackie Walker, a registered practical nurse and president of the nursing division at the Service Employee International Union (SEIU).
"It's going to make wait times longer, because we know nurses are going to leave the hospital and go work at those for profit, investor-led clinics," she said.
Bill 60, or Your Health Act, passed in early May. The legislation is aimed at reducing wait times and surgical backlogs.
Walker compared the government's move to the privatization of long-term care homes, saying the care for residents is worse there.
"The investor-led clinics are his buddies, they're his donors, they are the people who are in his inner circle, and they don't look like me. They don't live where I live. And the care that I need in my community is not going to be there," she said.
Data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information shows Ontario had the shortest waiting times in Canada for hip and knee replacement surgeries in 2021/2022, with 73 per cent of patients receiving knee replacement surgery within six months while patients in provinces outsourcing surgeries to for-profit clinics waited longer— 70, 53 and 48 per cent in British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec respectively.
Only cataract surgery lagged behind, with 60 per cent of surgeries being done within the 16-week benchmark.
Cataract surgeries and diagnostic imaging and testing will be expanded while the government will create an entirely new system to perform hip and knee replacement surgeries.
On Monday, provincial and local leaders from the SEIU, the Ontario Nurses Association, the Canadian Union of Public Employees and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union led the group of protesters, while chanting "patient, not profit" and "hey-hey, ho-ho, privatization has got to go," to deliver a petition to Elizabeth Buller, CEO of St. Joseph's Health System.
St. Joseph's Health System has six member organizations, in Hamilton, Kitchener, Guelph, Brantford and Dundas.
The petition called on Buller to lobby the province in support of public health care. However, Buller wasn't there Monday, rally organizers said.
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