{"id":8600,"date":"2019-11-05T16:14:27","date_gmt":"2019-11-05T21:14:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/?p=8600"},"modified":"2019-11-05T16:18:29","modified_gmt":"2019-11-05T21:18:29","slug":"ontario-health-coalition-to-hold-local-rally-protesting-health-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/index.php\/ontario-health-coalition-to-hold-local-rally-protesting-health-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario Health Coalition to Hold Local Rally Protesting Health Cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"

(October 28, 2019)<\/p>\n

By: Megan Pounder, Sault Online<\/p>\n

The Ontario Health Coalition held a press conference at the Seniors Centre on Monday to announce an upcoming campaign to save local health care services. This campaign will take place in various places across Ontario, including an event at the George Leech Centre here in the Sault on Nov. 30, to save vital local health care services such as Public Health Units, paramedic & ambulance services, dispatch units, and long-term care homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Doug Ford government is planning to:<\/p>\n

Cut\u00a0Public Health funding &\u00a0close\u00a025 out of 35 local Public Health Units, reducing them to 10.<\/p>\n

Close\u00a049 out of 59 local ambulance services, reducing them to 10 &\u00a0close\u00a012 of 22 local dispatch centres.<\/p>\n

Make\u00a0real-dollar cuts\u00a0to public hospital funding, even though we have the fewest hospital beds left per person of any province in Canada and a crisis of hospital overcrowding. More cuts mean more services & staff cuts, less services, longer waits, more privatization & higher death rates.<\/p>\n

Make real-dollar cuts to long-term care homes, forcing municipalities to either raise taxes or cut services for elderly & chronic care residents,\u201d a press release sent out by the coalition states.<\/p>\n

This campaign will include efforts such as opening a local office, going door-to-door handing out informational leaflets, trying to raise local awareness about these cuts, Ontario Coalition Executive Director Natalie Mehra explained in a media scrum.<\/p>\n

\u201c(These cuts) are really very dramatic, particularly for the north,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Sault has been particularly troubled by long wait-times in the hospital, inadequate numbers of long-term care beds, the cuts are very real here, there\u2019s a public health unit here, which is very likely to be one of the ones that\u2019s eliminated,\u201d Mehra continued, talking about why they\u2019re holding this rally in the Sault and not somewhere such as Sudbury.<\/p>\n

The OHC is trying to target putting pressure on Conservative MPP\u2019s \u2013 such as local Ross Romano \u2013 and Mehra said the Sault was one of the four locations in Ontario (others include Chattam, Ottawa and Toronto) because the northern issues are \u201cvery unique.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlready, services have been very centralized across giant regions in the north, already people have much more severe access to healthcare issues than in Southern Ontario\u2026this is where we can have a maximum political impact if we get hundreds of people out to this event,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Others in attendance included:<\/p>\n