The local health coalition will be holding a town hall meeting to tell residents about a health care plan that health officials are calling not well thought out.
The Chatham-Kent Health Coalition and the Ontario Health Coalition will be holding a town hall meeting Thursday night regarding Doug Ford's recent health care reform and the impact it will have on local health care.
The provincial government introduced Bill 74: The People’s Health Care Act, 2019 on February 26. The bill will create a "super agency" and create a new model for a patient-centric public health care delivery system.
Shirley Roebuck, the chairperson for the CK Health Coalition, said she fears local health care services will lose their authority when the reform takes over. She said one of her biggest concerns is that the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance will be urged to merge with another hospital.
"I fear that we're going to lose control," Roebuck said. "We'll have to travel more for health care services. I believe services will be more erratic."
Roebuck said she also believes the reform will hurt smaller, rural communities like Chatham-Kent.
"I worry that our community will have no control over what health care services we receive here. The Chatham-Kent Health Alliance has done amazing work of setting up a rural medicine program, which was greatly needed in this area," said Roebuck.
The bill also plans to increase long-term care beds by 15,000 and beds for mental health and addiction treatment by 30,000, but Roebuck believes the province needs to first deal with the shortage of medical workers.
"If you can't staff those beds, why would you open them? They have to first deal with the PSW crisis in long-term care and fix it," she said.
In addition to believing the bill was not well thought out, Roebuck also described the announcement of the reform secretive and rushed.
"There has been no public consultation," explained Roebuck. "Nothing. What we're asking people to do, even if you can't come out to our town hall meeting... call your MPP and tell him or her that public consultation should be done before this bill becomes law."
Roebuck said the town hall meeting is simply a chance for residents to learn more about the bill and that they will just be presenting the facts.
"We're going to be explaining what Bill 74 does and says. We're not going to be giving our opinions, we're doing to tell you what's in the bill, then you make your own decision," she said. "We're not telling you that you have to agree with it, but come on out and learn what you can about the proposed health care plan."
The town hall meeting will take place Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Red Line Room at St. Clair College's Thames Campus Arena in Chatham.
Roebuck said they will be hosting a similar town hall event in Wallaceburg on March 28. At the meetings, residents will also be able to sign up for a rally that the Ontario Health Coalition will be sponsoring at Queen's Park on April 30.
