Starting September 21, the Ontario Health Coalition (OHC) is sponsoring summits in six cities around Ontario dealing with significant changes proposed for Ontario’s hospitals.
The provincial government is moving towards a type of fee-for-service hospital funding (usually referred to by the government as "patient based funding", and by critics as "price based funding"). This is a potentially revolutionary change. The OHC notes that this funding system will encourage:
- Major hospital restructuring and cuts
- Centralization of services into fewer towns & pressure on the workforce
- A host of new administrative costs
- The end of community hospitals as we know them
This system has already been tried in the United Kingdom. There, it resulted in:
- Near-bankruptcies in large hospitals - ballooning administrative costs
- instability - privatization
- major cuts - demoralized staff
- chaotic health planning and the undermining of the national public health system
The schedule for the summits is as follows:
Hamilton: Tuesday, September 21, 10am-3pm Legion Branch 163, 435 Limeridge Rd. E
Sault Ste. Marie: Wednesday, September 22, 10am-3pm Legion Branch 25, 96 Great Northern Rd.
London: Thursday, September 23, 10am-3pm, CAW Hall Local 27, 606 First St.
Sudbury: Saturday, September 25, 10am-3pm, Legion Branch 76, 1553 Weller St.
Ottawa: Monday, September 27, 10am-3pm, Ottawa Public Library (Main Branch), 120 Metcalfe St.
Toronto: Tuesday, September 28, 10:30am-3:30pm, Metro Central YMCA, 20 Grosvenor St.
These summits are high priority events for hospital activists. The OHC web site is here.
dallan@cupe.ca
The provincial government is moving towards a type of fee-for-service hospital funding (usually referred to by the government as "patient based funding", and by critics as "price based funding"). This is a potentially revolutionary change. The OHC notes that this funding system will encourage:
- Major hospital restructuring and cuts
- Centralization of services into fewer towns & pressure on the workforce
- A host of new administrative costs
- The end of community hospitals as we know them
This system has already been tried in the United Kingdom. There, it resulted in:
- Near-bankruptcies in large hospitals - ballooning administrative costs
- instability - privatization
- major cuts - demoralized staff
- chaotic health planning and the undermining of the national public health system
The schedule for the summits is as follows:
Hamilton: Tuesday, September 21, 10am-3pm Legion Branch 163, 435 Limeridge Rd. E
Sault Ste. Marie: Wednesday, September 22, 10am-3pm Legion Branch 25, 96 Great Northern Rd.
London: Thursday, September 23, 10am-3pm, CAW Hall Local 27, 606 First St.
Sudbury: Saturday, September 25, 10am-3pm, Legion Branch 76, 1553 Weller St.
Ottawa: Monday, September 27, 10am-3pm, Ottawa Public Library (Main Branch), 120 Metcalfe St.
Toronto: Tuesday, September 28, 10:30am-3:30pm, Metro Central YMCA, 20 Grosvenor St.
These summits are high priority events for hospital activists. The OHC web site is here.
dallan@cupe.ca
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