North Bay Council is calling on the Ford government to repeal Bill 60

Bill 60. (new window). aims to expand the privatization of hospital services to for-profit organizations.

In the document, the North Bay City Council states that,Bill 60 plans to remove thousands of surgeries and diagnostic tests from public hospitals and provide those services to private, for-profit hospitals and clinics.

On the other hand, the North Bay City Council says that Bill 60 will expel doctors and nurses from small hospitals and community clinics […] which may lead to the closure of these services and force residents to travel long distances to access public health and medical servicescan also be read in documents.

Misrepresentation of services

Separately, the North Bay & District Health Alliance has also raised concerns about Bill 60.

In this sense, in a letter sent to the municipal council, the organization through its president, Henri Giroux, informed the elected municipal leaders that the for-profit medical clinics will direct resources from the public sector to the private sector.

According to him, still in the letter, this situation can causeincreasing costs of service delivery and labor shortages.

Also, Mr. Giroux says that private clinics probably have more day shifts and better paying jobs and that this would encourage health workers to leave the public system.

” There is no real protection against labor poaching in our public hospitals. »

Bill 60 does not include protection against this problem and will give private clinics the possibility to hire and reduce the number of health workers available.we can read in the description.

Many Ontario hospitals were forced to temporarily close their emergency rooms last summer due to staff shortages. (File photo)

Photo: Reuters/Carlos Osorio

Ontario is facing the worst workforce crisis we have ever seen, he adds in his letter.

In Northern Ontario, we see every day in public hospitals and long-term care facilities that employers to find employees in their own facilities offer rewards and higher wages.shows the note.

Rule 60: bad solution

For Henri Giroux, giving more space to private clinics is not the right solution. In his argument, he notes that during the COVID-19 pandemic,it is in for-profit organizations that we have recorded the highest number of deaths compared to non-profit organizations.

” This government is choosing to destroy 100 years of effort on the part of Ontarians to build buildings and improve their services by deliberately choosing to bring in private clinics. »

We are worried about the future of our grandchildren, who will have to pay with a credit card and not with an OHIP card like we have now.concludes the document.

In its approach, the North Bay City Council intends to send a copy of its resolution to the provincial authorities, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, the Federation of Municipalities of Northern Ontario, the Association of Rural Municipalities of Ontario and the Association of Small Urban Municipalities of Ontario. Ontario.