The Chatham-Kent Health Coalition will hold a protest on Wednesday in hopes of convincing the Ontario government to scrap a home care and community services bill it says is "misguided and flawed."
Chair of Chatham-Kent, Sarnia, Wallaceburg and Walpole Island First Nations Health Coalitions Shirley Roebuck said Bill-175 would privatize some of those services if it's passed.
Roebuck claimed the bill was hastily written.
"It dismantles public oversight and parcels out current public home care functions to an array of providers, including for-profit companies," said Roebuck.
Roebuck said the Ford government is ignoring public input given last week.
"All organizations that presented in front of the government suggested withdrawing this legislation but they're pushing it through," she added.
Roebuck said the bill needs to have safeguards that protect the public and ensure quality services.
"As much as the LHIN [Local Health Integration Network] system was flawed, at least it was a public entity and there was a complaint process for public oversight," Roebuck said.
The protest will be held Wednesday at noon in front of Chatham-Kent Leamington MPP Rick Nicholls' office in Chatham.
Roebuck is asking protesters to maintain their physical distancing and to wear masks during the protest.
Nicholls won't be at his office for the protest. He is at Queen's Park but tells Blackburn News Bill 175 is modernizing the delivery of home and community care services. He said the legislation would break down bureaucratic barriers to accessing care for all patients, including those with disabilities and empower home and community care service providers to play a stronger role in the delivery of care. Nicholls added community services would continue to be directly provided by non-profit organizations in almost all cases. Nicholls also said the proposed legislation is not aimed at privatizing community care or changing the current mix of not-for-profit and for-profit health care providers that currently deliver services to patients, adding the government has no plans to expand private hospitals.
“Bill 175 is proposing to maintain that health service providers or Ontario Health Teams that provide home and community care services must be not-for-profit. Ontarians can continue to rely on our publicly funded health care system and publicly-funded home care,” Nicholls concluded.
He added the pending bill makes it clear the same home care services that are provided without a client co-payment will continue to be provided without client co-payment.
Nicholls said despite what the health coalition is saying, the province has consulted with patients and caregivers, providers and workers and health system and academic experts to tackle significant public health care issues.