By Blake Ellis
Local Journalism Initiative
Petrolia Independent
The Chatham-Kent Health Care Coalition (CKHCC) is holding a citizen-led referendum on May 26 and 27 in a province-wide effort to send a message to the Ford government to stop privatizing health services.
The CKHCC has asked several businesses and organizations to set up voting locations throughout the municipality.
CKHCC chair Shirley Roebuck hopes as many as one million Ontarians vote no to privatization across the province.
The results will be presented to the Ontario government.
This effort comes after the provincial government announced plans to have 14,000 cataract surgeries conducted in private facilities. This is 25 per cent of the waitlist created during the pandemic.
The next phase of the government’s plan will have private clinics offer MRI, CT scans, colonoscopies and endoscopies, with hips and knee surgeries in private clinics by 2024.
The province plans private facilities in Windsor, Waterloo and Ottawa as cataract centres.
Roebuck said there could be a disruption when the private clinics open, as she suspects private clinic staff will be paid higher and might be poached from the public sector system.
She pointed to Riverside campus of the Ottawa Hospital. “There are some strange partnerships being built,” said Roebuck. CBC reported a group of surgeons are performing hip and knee surgeries Saturdays in operating rooms, which are not being used by the hospitals.
It is not clear how these surgeons are paying for the use of the operating rooms, equipment and supplies.
Registered nurses who agree to work on Saturdays are being offered double then what they would normally make.
Roebuck said this higher level of pay being offered to staff in a private setting could make it more difficult for the public system to fill jobs.
