Thunder Bay Hospital Professionals rally to save public healthcare

THUNDER BAY, ON, May 29, 2023 /CNW/ - OPSEU/SEFPO hospital professionals from Local 715 will be holding a rally on May 29 to speak out against healthcare privatization and to achieve fairness for hospital professionals. Today's rally will be one of numerous solidarity actions held across Ontario.

Gail Kelly, President of OPSEU/SEFPO Local 715, will be present and available for media comment.

• In February 2023, the Ontario Conservative government introduced Bill 60, Your Health Act, under the guise of relieving strain in public hospitals and reducing wait times. Bill 60 was passed on May 8, and will allow more private clinics to open, without limit, and conduct OHIP-covered surgeries and diagnostic services. This comes as public hospital operating rooms cannot operate at full capacity due to a lack of staff and funding.
• Hospital professionals and their unions have adamantly spoken out against Bill 60. Schedule 2 of Bill 60 has serious consequences for the safe delivery of healthcare services. It will give the government the power to deregulate some health professions by making changes to the definitions of Medical Laboratory Technologists, Medical Radiation Technologists, Registered Respiratory Therapists, Physicians, Registered Practical Nurses and Registered Nurses.
• Bill 60 poses a further threat to public hospitals budgets because of 'cream-skimming' ? when for-profit clinics the easiest, fastest and most lucrative procedures and leave the most difficult, risky and expensive ones for the public system. Ontario's underfunded public hospitals rely on these procedures to offset the costs of more difficult ones. 
• Bill 60 will not only privatize surgical and diagnostic services - it will pull even more funding and staff away from public hospitals, making wait times and staffing shortages worse.
• Ontario competes for last place among the provinces when it comes to healthcare funding per capita. In terms of hospital staffing, bringing Ontario from dead last to the Canadian average would cost $2 billion. Last fall, Ontario's Financial Accountability Office (FAO) reported that healthcare spending was nearly $2 billion ($1.8 billion) less than what was originally earmarked.

SOURCE Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU/SEFPO)