{"id":154509,"date":"2023-05-17T17:01:20","date_gmt":"2023-05-17T21:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=154509"},"modified":"2023-05-17T17:01:20","modified_gmt":"2023-05-17T21:01:20","slug":"local-health-coalition-opposes-bill-60-worries-for-future-of-small-town-hospitals-and-patients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/local-health-coalition-opposes-bill-60-worries-for-future-of-small-town-hospitals-and-patients\/","title":{"rendered":"Local health coalition opposes Bill 60, worries for future of small-town hospitals and patients"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Guelph District Health Coalition<\/a> (GDHC) is joining an \"unprecedented response\" to an \"unprecedented issue\" \u2014 a movement against Bill 60<\/a> which the local organization believes could be damaging to health care in Centre Wellington.<\/p>\n

Responding to the new bill, GDHC \u2014 a coalition formed by seniors\u2019 groups, patients\u2019 organizations, nurses and more \u2014 will be taking part in a province-wide, community-run public opinion vote opposing Ontario's Bill 60.<\/p>\n

The provincial bill will move some specific surgeries and diagnostics into private, for-profit clinics. In a recent press release, the coalition said they are \u201cgravely concerned\u201d about the development.<\/p>\n

Brit Hancock, GDHC co-chair, believes the new system will be hard on everyone, specifically hospitals and residents of local small communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cSay a smaller town loses those surgeries, there\u2019s no option but for them to close or reduce their hours,\" she said. \"That leaves a lot of people in really precarious situations, especially elderly people that require cataracts or knee and hip surgeries to have to go outwards, out of their communities to get these done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The concerns come less than a year after reduced hours were implemented at several local hospitals, including emergency department closures for both Louise Marshall Hospital in Mount Forest and Wingham Hospital. The closures were a result of a gap in nursing coverage.<\/p>\n

Hancock thinks the system will leave smaller-market hospitals struggling even more.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s wonderful for the profitable larger cities that are closer to access, but I don\u2019t think people realize that once you eliminate those key surgeries out of hospitals that it\u2019s really difficult for the public hospitals to function,\u201d Hancock said.<\/p>\n

She added that she doesn\u2019t think the Ontario government's move into privatization comes out of an effort to improve the healthcare system.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey also aren\u2019t highlighting that in virtually every community across the province we do have operating rooms. They\u2019re just not being funded to their full capacity,\" Hancock said.<\/p>\n

\"It\u2019s a policy and a political choice that they\u2019re doing this. It\u2019s not a necessity,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

There will be 500 voting stations across the province, including three across Guelph May 26-27.<\/p>\n

For more information on the vote, visit publichospitalvote.ca<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to the CICW story below:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Guelph District Health Coalition (GDHC) is joining an “unprecedented response” to an “unprecedented issue” \u2014 a movement against Bill 60 which the local organization believes could be damaging to health care in Centre Wellington. Responding to the new bill, GDHC \u2014 a coalition formed by seniors\u2019 groups, patients\u2019 organizations, nurses and more \u2014 will…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":154578,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,219,223],"tags":[24840,26173,286,460,2105],"radio":[1376],"origine":[267,25404,269],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154509"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/112"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154509"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":154630,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154509\/revisions\/154630"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154509"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=154509"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=154509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}