A 15 foot replica of the famous Trojan Horse will arrive in midwestern Ontario later this month to put the spotlight on the challenges facing Ontario's health care system.
Brenda Scott of the Grey Bruce Health Coalition explained that during the Trojan war in the 12th century BC, the Greeks abandoned their decade long siege of the city of Troy, and left the gift of a giant trojan horse at the gate
"In the night time, the soldiers came out and slayed the people in the community. So it's become a symbol for, you know, kind of deception," Scott explained. "And the message here is that privatization is the gift that that we're getting that is actually defeating its purpose. It's destroying public health care through tactics like underfunding and such."
Scott revealed that transferring funding from public to private facilities is presented as the best solution to the problems facing our system. But it is a solution that is actually decimating the public system and local health care services.
"The message we're bringing is that we're supporting public health care," Scott stated. "Particularly in Chesley and Durham. Each of those communities still has only part time ER in their hospital. And in addition, of course, the Durham Hospital has lost ten of their hospital beds, which have been transferred to other hospitals, leaving them with none."
She pointed out the province's privatization of health services is treacherous, and causes unnecessary risk and anxiety.
"The thing that these small rural hospitals do best, is they can treat certain conditions right there, and save you having to go to a larger regional hospital at all," she added. "Or, if your situation requires this, they can help to stabilize your condition so that you can be safely transported to a regional center."
"If you have a condition that comes up in the middle of the daytime, and the ER is open. Well, good. You'll get good service. The staff are wonderful," said Scott. "But if you happen to have need for emergency medical care in the middle of the night, you're, you know, kind of in a tough luck situation. Where are you going to drive to next and how long do you have to get there?"
She worried ongoing cutbacks in local health care could get worse if privatization continues.
"One of the things that private services do is they raid staff from public services, then public services close down," she warned. "Well, Chesley and Durham would be good examples. When they reduce hours, or they close hours, it's due to staffing shortages, because people are changing systems."
"There are a lot of other issues with people paying for what would be a medically necessary service that should be paid for by OHIP," Scott continued. "There are private surgery services now that are being paid more by the provincial government to perform certain surgical procedures that in the public system would cost less."
The Trojan horse will appear at the Municipal Office in Chesley on November 26 from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. and at the Durham Town Hall on November 27 from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.