Ontario Healthcare

Judith Fox Lee | Jun 07, 2023

Our healthcare system has been pushed to the brink. This is an emergency, but it's not an accident. The Ford government is systematically under-funding our healthcare system so they can sell off services to the highest bidder.

The Perth Emergency Room was shut down for weeks last summer. It happened elsewhere in Ontario, for even longer periods. Beds in hallways for days on end is now the new norm.

I know, because I had to drive my husband who was getting his Stage 4 cancer diagnosis to further away for his important CT scan and had to return twice to get it done.

This is shameful, and there is no true need for it to happen after many, many decades of continuous, high quality public services in the province, when this would have been impossible to even contemplate.

We have Doug Ford to not thank-- the only needs which created this horrendous, on-going situation are his political goals! Even though he has now rammed through controversial Bill 60 — the legislation that will sell off hospital services to private, and for-profit companies-- we should not simply 'roll over' and give up. We need hospital CEOs across the province to stand up to him now.

A recent poll showed an overwhelming majority of Ontarians don't want an expansion of private, for-profit health care in their communities. There is no room for for-profit healthcare at Perth & Smiths Falls Hospital.

I'm calling on its CEO, Michael Cohen, to publicly speak out against Ford's plan for for-profit healthcare and call for reinvestment in public healthcare for all. Otherwise, we will lose quality staff and vital services to profits. Taxpayers always pay more for privatization!

Judith Fox Lee