{"id":28665,"date":"2023-06-02T13:08:18","date_gmt":"2023-06-02T17:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/?p=28665"},"modified":"2023-06-22T13:10:26","modified_gmt":"2023-06-22T17:10:26","slug":"referendum-98-against-private-for-profit-health-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/index.php\/referendum-98-against-private-for-profit-health-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Referendum: 98% against private, for-profit health care"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(June 1, 2023)<\/p>\n<p>By: Joanne Shuttleworth, Wellington Advertiser<\/p>\n<p>GUELPH \u2013 The Guelph and District Health Coalition is pleased with the results of the referendum on health care the group \u2013 in conjunction with the larger Ontario Health Coalition \u2013 held last weekend.<\/p>\n<p>The coalition is hopeful the government will hear the message that people value public health care and don\u2019t want to see it privatized.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is an awareness campaign,\u201d Barb Hogg, co-chair of the local health coalition, said in a phone interview after the referendum.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe talked to so many people who are not aware of the what the government is doing and when they heard, they were shocked.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In early May, the province passed Bill 60, legislation that allows some surgeries and diagnostic testing to be done in private clinics.<\/p>\n<p>The reasoning behind the move is to address the backlog of surgeries as a result of COVID-19 and its impact on hospitals.<\/p>\n<p>Many healthcare organizations say the move won\u2019t address the backlog and will merely shift health professionals \u2013 already in short supply \u2013 out of hospitals to more lucrative private health care organizations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBill 60 was passed so fast, most citizens didn\u2019t know what was happening,\u201d Hogg said in a follow-up email.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow as the news is getting out, people are astonished that this is happening.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The referendum asked the question, \u201cDo you want our public hospital services to be privatized to for-profit hospitals and clinics? Yes or no.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In Guelph and Wellington County, 11,085 people voted online, with 10,895 (98.2 per cent) voting no and 158 (1.4%) voting yes, while 32 (0.3%) of the ballots were spoiled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m very happy with that,\u201d Hogg said with respect to voter turnout.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cVolunteers led the referendum, and we didn\u2019t have much time and much of that was spent arranging voting stations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith more time, more money, and more volunteers, we could have got the message out to more people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The local ballots were rolled in with the votes cast across the province on May 26 and 27 and on May 31, the ballots were delivered to the government at Queen\u2019s Park.<\/p>\n<p>The province-wide numbers mirror the local ones.<\/p>\n<p>Of the 386,068 votes cast, 378,726 (98%) voted no and 7,001 voted yes (1.8%). There were 341 (.08%) spoiled ballots.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are unalterably opposed to the gutting and dismantling of our public hospitals and the privatization of them,\u201d said Natalie Mehra, executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the beginning of what will be a relentless campaign to stop them from privatizing our public hospitals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have no choice because once we lose them, I don\u2019t know how we will get them back. It will be very difficult if not impossible to get them back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mehra added,\u00a0\u201cThey can dismiss, make fun, and suppress the actual ability of the people to vote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe know they are worried about this \u2026 If they try to ignore this, we will ratchet it up. We will not stop until they stop.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hogg said the local health coalition is seeking volunteers to help spread the message.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou don\u2019t have to work in healthcare to participate \u2013 you just have to care about the issues,\u201d she said, adding the coalition is non-partisan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhatever the government of the day, if they try to deplete our healthcare, we\u2019re on it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Anyone interested in volunteering can contact the Guelph and District Health Coalition on their Facebook page or by emailing <a href=\"mailto:guelphdistricthealthcoalition@gmail.com\">guelphdistricthealthcoalition@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wellingtonadvertiser.com\/referendum-98-against-private-for-profit-healthcare\/?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=referendum-98-against-private-for-profit-healthcare\">Link to original article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(June 1, 2023) By: Joanne Shuttleworth, Wellington Advertiser GUELPH \u2013 The Guelph and District Health Coalition is pleased with the results of the referendum on health care the group \u2013 in conjunction with the larger Ontario Health Coalition \u2013 held last weekend. The coalition is hopeful the government will hear the message that people value [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ohc-in-the-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Referendum: 98% against private, for-profit health care - Ontario Health Coalition<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"(June 1, 2023) By: Joanne Shuttleworth, Wellington Advertiser GUELPH \u2013 The Guelph and District Health Coalition is pleased with the results of the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/index.php\/referendum-98-against-private-for-profit-health-care\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Referendum: 98% against private, for-profit health care - 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