Ontario Health Coalition: Important Town Hall Meetings

Save Public Medicare! Information

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We need your help to STOP THE HOSPITAL CUTS across ONTARIO.
If you live in the area, please come to one of the following Town Hall Meetings and forward this info widely. We are organizing Town Hall meetings across Ontario and we’ll be sending a province wide list shortly:

Hamilton Health Coalition-Monday, February 23rd,7pm @Michelangelo’s Banquet Centre, 1555 Upper Ottawa Street

Sarnia-Lambton Helath Coaltion- Tuesday, February 24th, 7pm @Victoria Playhouse Petrolia, 411 Greenfield-Petrolia

Windsor Essex Health Coalition-Wednesday, February 25, 7pm @CAW Local 2458/195 Hall, 3400 Somme Ave, Windsor

Trenton-Thursday,February 26th Batawa Community Centre Gd Stn Main, Belleville K8N 4Z8,

Your presence – and a giant turnout – will help send a message that the government cannot ignore. In bad economic times, we need our community hospitals more than ever.

Recent cuts announced:
Hamilton
Emergency room closing -McMaster; $21 million cut from budget – Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS); 400 nurses and staff cut – HHS & St. Joseph’s Healthcare; Hospitals in Fort Erie and Port Colborne are also being closed, this will strain Hamilton health care even further

Petrolia
Blue Water Health (Sarnia and Charlotte Eleanor Engleheart Site) – Proposed closure of Petrolia’s emergency room and other services

Windsor
Windsor Regional Hospital- cuts to  neonatal intensive care beds, the pain clinic, respiratory therapy, x-ray services; Windsor Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital-This hospital also faces a deficit and is so over capacity that surgeries had to be canceled this fall due to a lack of beds.

Trenton
Massive cuts to hospital beds in Trenton

The McGuinty government is not giving hospitals the funding they need. In 2008, half of Ontario’s hospitals faced deficits due to chronic underfunding by the McGuinty  government. That  figure is expected to grow to more than 70% of our hospitals in 2009. The government is forcing hospitals to eliminate their deficits – caused by government underfunding, even if  it means cuts to needed patient services.

Ontario’s hospitals are funded less than anywhere else in the country — $100 less per person or $1.2 billion less across the province. They have been cut and restructured for 15 years already. The current cuts will lead to worse access, longer waits and poorer quality of care. Please join us in raising our deep concerns about the impact of these cuts on our access to care.

Your presence matters — we need a show of strength.
Please spread the word as far as you can — ALL ARE WELCOME.