Rallies by the provincial health-care watchdog group also are being held this month and in October in London, St. Thomas, Windsor, Woodstock and other communities around the province.

The aim is “just to get people out and understand what’s going on with public hospitals and health care,” Weiss said.

The group’s concerns include Ontario’s move to allow private cataract surgery clinics “and now they’re going to be expanding it” to some surgeries for hips and knees, as well as additional medical diagnostic tests traditionally provided at hospitals, she said.

“We feel if they would fund the public hospitals to a sufficient amount, they can do all of this in the hospitals,” Weiss said. “They don’t have to open private clinics.”

Weiss, who retired from Bluewater Health after working more than 30 years as a registered pharmacy technician, said she recalls strong public response to cuts there in the past.

“I think that’s what it needs,” she said about a public response to current pressures on public health care in Ontario.

“People don’t always realize this is going on until we’re actually at that point where we’re going to lose something,” Weiss said. “We want to push now before we lose anything further.”

“I don’t think people really fully understand until it happens to them,” Weiss said.

The coalition has held rallies locally in the past outside of the MPP’s office but chose a busier public location for Saturday’s event, Weiss said.

“It’s a nice busy spot, just to ensure people are seeing and hearing what the issues are,” she said.

Along with signs, “we have some red umbrellas, because that’s our logo,” she said.

A petition asking the federal government to “ensure the Canada Health Act is being enforced” also will be available for the public to sign at the rally, Weiss said.

Federal funding for health care flows to the province which decides how it will be spent “and we feel the money is not going appropriately to public health care,” she said.

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