(December 5, 2024) By: Mike Baker, The Highlander<\/p>\n
The Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU-CUPE) made a pit stop in Haliburton County last week armed with a 20-foot replica of the mythical Trojan Horse, which figurehead Michael Hurley said symbolizes the danger privatization poses to public healthcare.<\/p>\n
Demonstrations were held in Minden and Haliburton Nov. 28, with Hurley, Ontario Health Coalition executive director Natalie Mehra, County-based activist Bonnie Roe, and NDP MPP from Spadina-Fort York Chris Glover each sending messages to the provincial government.<\/p>\n
The voices were united \u2013 they want to see the Minden ER reopened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re so inspired by your fight in this community to keep services operating here. We\u2019re all stricken by the Minden closure,\u201d Hurley said. \u201cThis government, despite Ontario having an aging and growing population, refuses to invest in hospitals, long-term care, or home care.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said Minden was \u201cground zero\u201d for hospital closures and service reductions provincially. A CBC report this week revealed at least 38 Ontario hospitals with emergency rooms or urgent care centres have experienced closures since 2021 \u2013 about one in five of 176 publicly-funded facilities.<\/p>\n
The issue is most crippling in rural areas \u2013 the Clinton and Chesley hospitals have each been partially closed or seen reduced hours for 335 days this year, while the Durham hospital has been impacted 280 days.<\/p>\n
Hurley said the Ontario government is starving the public health care system, spending $1.7 billion less than was budgeted last year.<\/p>\n
In May 2023, the Ford government passed a bill allowing private clinics to conduct more surgeries \u2013 Hurley said he knows people who grew tired of waiting for surgery through OHIP so went private, which is often more than double the price.<\/p>\n
He quoted recent statistics released by the Canadian Medical Association Journal, which said access to cataract surgery \u2013 the most common operation carried out in Ontario \u2013 had increased 22 per cent for the wealthy but declined 9 per cent for the middle class and those on low-income.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what happens when you introduce a private system \u2013 money walks to the head of the line,\u201d Hurley said. \u201cWe want a system that treats people based on need, not income.\u201d<\/p>\n
Toronto-based Glover said he\u2019s been advocating for the reopening of the Minden ER for more than a year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got many good friends who live in this community \u2013 in May 2023, one of them called to say he had just been in a head-on accident in Moore Falls and they had been rushed to the Minden ER. He said being so close to a hospital saved his wife\u2019s life. Then in the next sentence he told me that hospital was being shut down,\u201d said Glover. \u201cI was absolutely shocked. It made no sense then and it still makes no sense now.\u201d<\/p>\n
He told about a man who passed away from cardiac arrest last year while en route to the Haliburton hospital, and a young girl who got a fishhook caught in her eye a stone\u2019s throw from the old Minden facility, but had to endure a 25-minute trip to Haliburton before having it removed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are tens of thousands of these stories across the province, of people suffering because of the privatization of our health care system,\u201d Glover said. Hurley said the \u2018Trojan Horse tour\u2019 included 65 communities and is wrapping up this week. The horse was built 20 years ago when the union opposed cuts to public health, though Hurley believes the situation is more serious today.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe horse represents a gift that you should be wary of because it\u2019s a tainted gift, a poisoned apple,\u201d Hurley said, referencing privatization. \u201cIt\u2019s no solution to our problems. Costs will go up, it will divide access to care based on income, and it will draw staff away when we\u2019re already struggling to staff our public system.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrivatization is a cancer. It\u2019s the death knell to public health,\u201d Hurley added.<\/p>\n