“We should honour what we had”: Londoners get on board for public healthcare

On Thursday, nearly 100 Londoners joined thousands of Ontarians in a march in Toronto to demand the Ford government stop funding private health care.

In London at 6:30 a.m., dozens of people piled into the VIA rail station prepping to go to Toronto for the protest organized by the Ontario Health Coalition. Awaiting a 7:50 a.m.train departure (that would later get delayed an hour) the growing group of Londoners shared their motivations to stand up for public health care.

Brandon, a young person joining the trains, sees healthcare as just one of many pillars of Ontario that the Progressive Conservative party of Ontario has damaged since 2018.

“Doug Ford has been ruining a lot recently. Obviously, this one is huge because healthcare is so important for everyone,” said Brandon.

Peter Bergmanis, co-chair of the London Health Coalition, outlining the purpose of the marches. 

“We are riding the rails here to send a message to Queen’s Park that the people of Ontario can’t stand for this privatization of their hospitals,” said Bergmanis. “We’re looking for people to make a loud statement to the politicians that this is enough.”

“Over the last year, Ford has announced almost $300 million to open 61 new private clinics – the vast majority of them run for-profit,” the Ontario Health Coalition shared in a press release shared with Antler River Media. “By the government’s own estimation, this latest slew of new private clinics alone is intended to redirect more than 1.2 million patients away from public hospitals.”

The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) operates as a hospital hub for the Southwestern Ontario region and faces a deficit of $153 million — the worst operating deficit in the province. Amidst financial difficulties following a corruption scandal at the executive level, the hospital has been dealing with workforce cuts and has been put under a supervisorship, with the LHSC planning to cut 288 registered nurses from their workforce. These nurses are to be replaced by 108 registered practical nurses, who are paid less and have less comprehensive medical education. 

“Accessibility is going to be impacted,” said Bergmanis. “The money is there. It’s just being transferred to the private sector instead.”

The Ontario Health Coalition further argues that the province’s prioritization of  private clinics takes funds, staff and services away from public hospitals, leaving lower income individuals with less stable access to services.

Betty Morisson, a community advocate with London ACORN, already sees this taking place. “I don’t want to go to the hospital anymore because it’s some 15 to 24 hours wait. Why would I want to do that?” said Morisson. “It’s just gotten to a point where it’s between Ford and the cuts and everything. Nobody cares anymore about us low-income [folk].” 

Morisson sees the rise of privatization as a damning. “We don’t have anywhere to go — I don’t have family to turn to,” she said.

For Jeff Hanks, a nurse at LHSC and co-chair of the London Health Coalition, the funding of the private clinics is a slippery slope for Canadian health independence.

“Our public health care was carved out of the trade deal because it’s universal public health care,” said Hanks. “Ford funding private clinics to the tunes of hundreds of millions of dollars, 60 new private clinics, once that goes through, the Americans can argue, well, it’s not a public thing anymore. So we can come in and buy up all your companies and rent it back to you at a premium.”

Hanks referenced the fact that LifeLabs, Canada’s largest medical testing company, was sold to an American company and how the carving of a private system of healthcare can lead to further American for-profit acquisitions. “If they can’t make a profit, then they might not offer certain services,” said Hanks.  

Pamela, a healthcare worker at the LHSC, explained the pressure workers face amidst these cuts. In her former role as a ward clerk, she was in charge of two wards instead of one, a consequence she believes is the result of cuts to healthcare. 

“The quality of healthcare is going to be affected by this. Workers are being overworked and it’s really affecting workers health,” she said. “They’re trying doing two and three people’s jobs instead of one person’s job.”

For Pamela, this pressure leads to frustration among workers, leading to  early retirements or career changes. “We’re losing quality workers,” she said.

Dinesh and Ruth, a couple taking the train, were there to support their children, who work in healthcare at the LHSC.

“My daughter, she was working in emergency, but she suffered burnout,” said Ruth of her daughter, who now works in a by-appointment urgent care clinic. 

“Nurse numbers have been reduced. A lot of nurses have resigned because they were under a lot of stress,” Dinesh added.

“Healthcare is really not available anymore the way it used to be… A lot of people don’t even have their own doctors. They go to emergency, they go to acute care, or they don’t go at all,” said Ruth.

“We shouldn’t go to the path the [United States] is going. We should honor what we had and we should keep it that way,” said Dinesh.

As the group prepared to board their train, they shared a message to Londoners concerned about healthcare. 

“Let your voices come out because that’s what we got to do. We’ve got to group together and become one,” said Morisson.

“If the Ford government refuses to listen, we’re going to force them to listen and demand that our tax dollars go towards our public hospitals,” said Bergmanis.

“The one thing that makes people proud to be Canadian is our public health care. And at this point, we have to fight for it because we are losing our public health care,” said Pamela.