Posted by Sudbury Northern Life
Nickel Belt MPP and NDP Health Care Critic France Gélinas is urging the Ontario government to demonstrate its commitment to medicare.
Private, for-profit providers are ducking out of health care contracts, she said.
Gélinas' comments comes on the heels of two unrelated announcements last week - the pull-out of a private company bidding to provide for-profit physiotherapy services at a Kincardine Hospital, and the decision by Extendicare, a for-profit company, to cancel long-term care agreements in three underserviced Ontario communities.
"Ontarians have watched in horror as their health care services become increasingly privatized," Gélinas said. "The McGuinty government has been handed two golden opportunities to reverse this trend and show its commitment to Medicare."
In Kincardine, the hospital had previously announced the privatization of its outpatient physiotherapy services, which would have forced residents to pay out-of-pocket for private, for-profit physiotherapy services delivered out of their community hospital.
"New Democrats have repeatedly called on the McGuinty government to properly fund physiotherapy services. The government now has a chance to do so in Kincardine," said Gélinas.
In Kingston, Windsor and Guelph, there has been a long wait for the much-needed new nursing home beds, which Extendicare was supposed to provide.
"It's not the lack of demand that drove Extendicare away. It's the lack of profits to be realized. But profit shouldn't factor into the equation when we have 22,000 Ontarians waiting for a long-term care bed," the health critic said.
The decisions made by the private, for-profit companies are proof that they put profit ahead of everything else when it comes to providing Ontarians with quality healthcare, she added.
"We see what happens when there isn't a buck to be made. These companies are not willing to risk their bottom-line to provide the services Ontarians need. The McGuinty government can now turn potential losses into gains by putting our health care money back into the hands of the public health care system, where patient need, not greed, motivates decisions."
