{"id":31465,"date":"2026-05-30T20:00:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T00:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/?p=31465"},"modified":"2026-06-01T12:00:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T16:00:06","slug":"we-should-honour-what-we-had-londoners-get-on-board-for-public-healthcare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/index.php\/we-should-honour-what-we-had-londoners-get-on-board-for-public-healthcare\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWe should honour what we had\u201d: Londoners get on board for public healthcare"},"content":{"rendered":"
(May 30, 2026) By: Emmanuel Akanbi, Antler River Media Co-op<\/div>\n
\n

On Thursday, nearly 100 Londoners joined thousands of Ontarians in a march in Toronto to demand the Ford government stop funding private health care.<\/p>\n

In London at 6:30 a.m., dozens of people piled into the VIA rail station prepping to go to Toronto for the protest organized by the Ontario Health Coalition. Awaiting a 7:50 a.m.train departure (that would later get delayed an hour) the growing group of Londoners shared their motivations to stand up for public health care.<\/p>\n

Brandon, a young person joining the trains, sees healthcare as just one of many pillars of Ontario that the Progressive Conservative party of Ontario has damaged since 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoug Ford has been ruining a lot recently. Obviously, this one is huge because healthcare is so important for everyone,\u201d said Brandon.<\/p>\n

Peter Bergmanis, co-chair of the London Health Coalition, outlining the purpose of the marches.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are riding the rails here to send a message to Queen\u2019s Park that the people of Ontario can\u2019t stand for this privatization of their hospitals,\u201d said Bergmanis. \u201cWe\u2019re looking for people to make a loud statement to the politicians that this is enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the last year, Ford has announced almost $300 million to open 61 new private clinics \u2013 the vast majority of them run for-profit,\u201d the Ontario Health Coalition shared in a press release shared with Antler River Media. \u201cBy the government\u2019s own estimation, this latest slew of new private clinics alone is intended to redirect more than 1.2 million patients away from public hospitals.\u201d<\/p>\n

The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) operates as a hospital hub for the Southwestern Ontario region and faces a deficit of $153 million \u2014 the worst operating deficit<\/a> in the province. Amidst financial difficulties following a corruption scandal<\/a> at the executive level, the hospital has been dealing with workforce cuts and has been put under a supervisorship, with the LHSC planning to cut 288 registered nurses<\/a> from their workforce. These nurses are to be replaced by 108 registered practical nurses<\/a>, who are paid less and have less comprehensive medical education.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccessibility is going to be impacted,\u201d said Bergmanis. \u201cThe money is there. It\u2019s just being transferred to the private sector instead.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ontario Health Coalition further argues that the province\u2019s prioritization of\u00a0 private clinics takes funds, staff and services away from public hospitals, leaving lower income individuals with less stable access to services.<\/p>\n

Betty Morisson, a community advocate with London ACORN, already sees this taking place. \u201cI don\u2019t want to go to the hospital anymore because it\u2019s some 15 to 24 hours wait. Why would I want to do that?\u201d said Morisson. \u201cIt\u2019s just gotten to a point where it\u2019s between Ford and the cuts and everything. Nobody cares anymore about us low-income [folk].\u201d<\/p>\n

Morisson sees the rise of privatization as a damning. \u201cWe don\u2019t have anywhere to go \u2014 I don\u2019t have family to turn to,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

For Jeff Hanks, a nurse at LHSC and co-chair of the London Health Coalition, the funding of the private clinics is a slippery slope for Canadian health independence.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur public health care was carved out of the trade deal because it\u2019s universal public health care,\u201d said Hanks. \u201cFord funding private clinics to the tunes of hundreds of millions of dollars, 60 new private clinics, once that goes through, the Americans can argue, well, it\u2019s not a public thing anymore. So we can come in and buy up all your companies and rent it back to you at a premium.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hanks referenced the fact that LifeLabs, Canada\u2019s largest medical testing company, was sold<\/a> to an American company and how the carving of a private system of healthcare can lead to further American for-profit acquisitions. \u201cIf they can\u2019t make a profit, then they might not offer certain services,\u201d said Hanks.<\/p>\n

Pamela, a healthcare worker at the LHSC, explained the pressure workers face amidst these cuts. In her former role as a ward clerk, she was in charge of two wards instead of one, a consequence she believes is the result of cuts to healthcare.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe quality of healthcare is going to be affected by this. Workers are being overworked and it\u2019s really affecting workers health,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re trying doing two and three people\u2019s jobs instead of one person\u2019s job.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Pamela, this pressure leads to frustration among workers, leading to\u00a0 early retirements or career changes. \u201cWe\u2019re losing quality workers,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Dinesh and Ruth, a couple taking the train, were there to support their children, who work in healthcare at the LHSC.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy daughter, she was working in emergency, but she suffered burnout,\u201d said Ruth of her daughter, who now works in a by-appointment urgent care clinic.<\/p>\n

\u201cNurse numbers have been reduced. A lot of nurses have resigned because they were under a lot of stress,\u201d Dinesh added.<\/p>\n

\u201cHealthcare is really not available anymore the way it used to be\u2026 A lot of people don\u2019t even have their own doctors. They go to emergency, they go to acute care, or they don\u2019t go at all,\u201d said Ruth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe shouldn\u2019t go to the path the [United States] is going. We should honor what we had and we should keep it that way,\u201d said Dinesh.<\/p>\n

As the group prepared to board their train, they shared a message to Londoners concerned about healthcare.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet your voices come out because that\u2019s what we got to do. We\u2019ve got to group together and become one,\u201d said Morisson.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the Ford government refuses to listen, we\u2019re going to force them to listen and demand that our tax dollars go towards our public hospitals,\u201d said Bergmanis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one thing that makes people proud to be Canadian is our public health care. And at this point, we have to fight for it because we are losing our public health care,\u201d said Pamela.<\/p>\n

Click here for the original article<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(May 30, 2026) By: Emmanuel Akanbi, Antler River Media Co-op On Thursday, nearly 100 Londoners joined thousands of Ontarians in a march in Toronto to demand the Ford government stop funding private health care. 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