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Privatization ?creeping? into public heath care

BY DIANE GILHULA Sudbury Regional Hospital is ripe for privatization, according to one local union leader. BARLOW Joanne Arnold, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (C.U.P.E.
BY DIANE GILHULA

Sudbury Regional Hospital is ripe for privatization, according to one local union leader.

BARLOW
Joanne Arnold, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (C.U.P.E.) Local 1623 in Sudbury, spoke at a meeting last week, which discussed the increasing privatization in the health-care system.

?I stand here tonight, and say to you, this is not going to go away. And if you do think that privately financed institutions will not happen in this community in health care, think again. In reality it is aleady here,? said Arnold.

About 100 people attended the public meeting, which was part of a 23-city speaking tour across Ontario called the Campaign Against For-Profit Health Care.

Those who also spoke at the meeting included Maude Barlow, chair of the Council of Canadians, Judy Darcy, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), and Natalie Mehra, co-ordinator of the Ontario Health Coalition.

The speakers want to create awareness about the Ontario government?s plans for two for-profit hospitals in Ottawa (Royal Ottawa Hospital), and in Brampton (William Osler Health Centre), and the 25 for-profit MRI and CT scan clinics.

Arnold suggested that while citizens wait for a report on the hospital? operational review in Sudbury, ?the threat of becoming a private-funded initiative? is already here.

?The south tower looms high over the remainder of the rest of the capital project not yet completed, but it is virtually empty. How this project will be completed is a mystery at this time,? she said.

?We are now in a crunch situation that is an open opportunity for the government to say, well we have no more dollars to give you, so let?s let the private sector enter, and let the games begin.? she said during an interview after her speech.

Arnold said Sudbury Regional Hospital is ?already stretching out their hands to the private sector...? A private company is cleaning offices at the south tower, work that could be done by unionized hospital housekeeping staff, she said.

Sudbury Regional Hospital has accepted building contracts at other offsite locations which give work to private cleaning companies rather than hospital employees, she said.

There have been 5,850 hours of layoffs in the housekeeping area alone. The work and livelihoods of her union members (CUPE Local 1623), are slowly being eroded, she said.

Hospital administration, meanwhile, is saying there is nothing they can do about it as ?it?s built into the building contracts.?

?I plead (with) you to see that the reality of Sudbury Regional Hospital possibly becoming the next privately financed institution...and its services being farmed out to private agencies is not something we as workers or members of this community should ever let happen,? she said.

Arnold also said it was common for the hospital to use office temp services, ?when in reality we have part-time staff wanting to work, and have had clerical reductions in the lab, and admitting.?

She also told the audience that the food services department has had a major overhaul, and ?we have now pre- packaged food from a private company and warmed through a re-thermal cart and served to patients.?

Patients don?t get a real cooked hot meal and they are not eating them. This was done to save money, ?but it is not working, food is being returned uneaten by patients, so much so that the hospital is now going back to a small partial hot meal made on site, she said.

She said she also has concerns about privatization of services at the Northeastern Mental Health Centre, and the North Bay Psychiatric facility as both centres services are currently under review.

In her remarks to the audience, Barlow said she has heard ?some bad stories about health care across the north.?

She is concerned about the private for-profit hospitals in Ottawa and Brampton.

?If 25 per cent of a hospitals? operating budgets are diverted to profits, staff and services will be cut so deeply that hospitals won?t be able to continue to provide all the services they do now.?

The Chretien and Mulroney governments took $36 billion out of health care, and are as well ?dedicated to tearing it down,? she said.

Under NAFTA Canada had a health-care exemption. ?But if we start privatizing for profit then health care is being delivered for profit. And then all the exemption we negotiated is gone.

The American-for-profit MRI clinics, hospitals HMOs (Heatlh Maintenance Organizations) will come over the border and set up shop here then medicare will be gone, because you cannot have a dual system, and hang onto medicare,?she said.

Barlow also said Chapter 11 of NAFTA needs to be renegotiated to allow medicare?s expansion into home care and drugs, which are forbidden at this point.

?We have been complaining about this for a long time that NAFTA constrained our right to expand our health care system, and now we realize it, and must face it.


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