Two buses from Grey Bruce traveled to Queen’s Park in Toronto to take part in a demonstration about healthcare in Ontario on Monday.
Brenda Scott, co-chair of the Chesley Hospital Community Support Group and co-chair of the Grey Bruce Health Coalition says the roughly 48 local people joined about 11,000 other demonstrators outside the provincial legislature.
Scott says, “It’s to draw a line in the sand and say to the government, we’re not satisfied with the way healthcare is being administered.”
Other groups speaking at the protest included the Ontario Health Coalition, representatives from each provincial opposition party, a number of unions including OPSEU, CUPE, UNIFOR, those from a group advocating for the Minden hospital, as well as individuals with personal experiences to share.
The Chesley hospital’s emergency department has been closed repeatedly over the last few years due to an insufficient number of nurses to staff it, and it’s been closed overnight for an extended period of time. The Durham and Walkerton emergency departments have also experienced closures due to insufficient staffing.
Scott is also critical of the provincial government enabling private clinics to conduct certain procedures. She says, “There’s an awful lot of people who will be advantaged as we move into a privatized healthcare system, and the people who will be disadvantaged will be the patients who will have to start to pay more for services that they require.”
Back in May, the Chesley Hospital Community Support Group brought a petition signed by over 12,000 people to the provincial legislature which was read by an NDP MPP as well as a liberal MPP. The petition called on the government to help keep their ER open by, “ensuring sufficient funding and fair compensation for nurses and physicians and to address the ongoing operational and labour issues that are impacting our vital emergency department service.”
Last week, the Mayors of Arran-Elderslie, West Grey and Brockton made a statement asking the province for more support to address staffing outages.
