TORONTO, Feb. 13, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

What: The Ontario Health Coalition is holding local town halls to stop Ford government’s plans to privatize our local public hospitals and demand they take action to fix the crisis in our local hospitals. Since last summer and continuing currently, Ontario has had almost a hundred emergency department closures due to the staffing crisis. In addition, ICUs, maternity units and other vital services have been subject to temporary closures. The Ford government has done very little to address the crisis in our local public hospitals and instead is using the crisis to push privatization of their services.

All across Ontario people have banded together for a century or more to build up our local public hospitals. We have volunteered, fundraised and donated from our pay cheques because these are vital services for our communities. Premier Ford claimed that 50% of hospital surgeries were easy, and thus, of the kind he is trying to privatize. This would devastate our local public hospitals, unless we stop him.

Private clinics and private hospitals routinely extra bill patients for medically needed services, upsell patients medically unnecessary services and make services contingent on purchasing upgrades and extra testing. They are a take-away, not an add on. They take funding, health professionals and less costly surgeries from our local public hospitals. We have the physical capacity to address the surgical and diagnostic backlog in our local hospitals. Building and expanding private clinics and hospitals serves no purpose other than to carve and dismantle our hospitals and sell them off to corporations. What we need now is action to address the hospital crisis and a plan to recruit and retain vital health professionals in our public hospitals, not further privatization.

Everyone, including media, is welcome.

When: See listing below, advance registration is required. Upon registering you will be emailed a Zoom link.

Thunder Bay
Monday, February 13 at 7 p.m. 
Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAlcuivqj8qHtzuhn9jR2D_Asdh69g6QvpO

Chatham-Kent
Wednesday, February 15 at 7 p.m.
Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwodeiprTksHdLOVMuIOV5yZF2x7Wy6c8lO

London
Thursday, February 16 at 7 p.m.
Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUlcOmvpjsrG9d-tLoHuuBt95tLGdvVlyaF

Sarnia-Lambton
Saturday, February 18 at 10 a.m.
Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZElcuuhqz8vGdTIzpyIDn2ZuY4K4FsDx1zk

Haliburton County
Tuesday, February 21 at 6:30 p.m.
Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZctd-2prTMrHdIEVqJ13f0acQ74TMEJfbW5

Guelph 
Wednesday, February 22 at 6:30 p.m.
Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEudeCorD4uG91p7kDy0Vb-m3ukIjA-Ugra

Oakville-Halton
Wednesday, February 22 at 7 p.m.
Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZErdemgrzIqHdfv0XXeb8Q653kAiX7qvXb9

Cornwall
Thursday, February 23 at 7 p.m.
Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZctcuCgrT0vE9R35bffuiuE3KxXKFJNHYR2

For more information: Natalie Mehra, executive director, Ontario Health Coalition 416-230-6402 (cell).