Peel Health Coalition protests against privatization of healthcare in Ontario

April 20, 2023 · 0 Comments

Coalition is part of the larger Ontario Health Coalition

By Zachary Roman

The Ontario Health Coalition wants to keep public healthcare public.

On April 18, the Peel chapter of the Ontario Health Coalition (OHC) held a protest out front of Brampton Civic Hospital.

The Peel Region Health Coalition (PRHC) was announcing its plans to fight back against the Ford government’s plan to privatize aspects of the healthcare system.

The OHC has also announced it is launching a province-wide citizen-run referendum on public healthcare.

According to PRHC, on January 16 the Ford government announced it was moving forward with plans to substantially expand for-profit clinics and hospitals in Ontario.

“Surgeries, MRIs and CTs are core public hospital services,” said PRHC. “Premier Ford said that it is his government’s estimation that 50 per cent of the surgeries done in our public hospitals are the easy sort; the profitable ones that for-profit clinics and hospitals want to take.”

The OHC and its chapters across Ontario have promised an “unprecedented” fightback against the privatization of public health services in Ontario.

“The Ontario public has never had any say about this plan to cut these vital services from our local public hospitals and privatize them,” said the PRHC. “Most of our communities have spent the last hundred years or more fundraising, donating and volunteering to build up their local hospitals and bring services closer to home.”

According to the OHC’s website, its primary goal is to protect and improve Ontario’s public health care system.

“We work to honour and strengthen the principles of the Canada Health Act. We are led by our shared commitment to core values of equality, democracy, social inclusion and social justice; and by the five principles of the Act: universality; comprehensiveness; portability; accessibility and public administration,” reads the site. “We are a non-profit, non-partisan public interest activist coalition and network.”