Premier Ford has been ecstatic since his announcement of the opening of many new medical clinics in Ontario, clinics that will according to him solve in part Ontario’s Healthcare crisis, the shortage of professional staff members. The Healthcare Ship of State has been leaking for many years before the pandemic showed its ugly face to us, but the pandemic has shown Ontarians and Canadians alike that their healthcare system is not only ill but on life support just like its patients, gasping for help.
The Conservative’s answer as always is to interject the private sector into ailing public institutions. Premier Ford not only will not say these clinics are temporary alternatives to hospitals but in a shrill voice proclaims private healthcare is alive and well in Ontario. Any criticism of their plan is met with the adage “you only need your OHIP card, and not a credit card to receive service”. No up charging or upselling allowed they say. MPPs must be going to private doctors for some time now, not realizing that businesses like healthcare clinics must and will generate profit any way they can. How will normal MPPs realize upcharges, when they will no doubt never enter a clinic we would use for service? First of all, MPPs are a privileged bunch with the legislature’s healthcare program at their beck and call. No waiting for this bunch, no sir. Do they understand that the introduction of private clinics to be used for simpler surgeries and procedures will create a massive void in our home province, one where nurses and other healthcare professionals will leave the public sector and enter the private medical sector? The wages of our nurses in hospitals are far lower than those in the private sector, therefore costs will increase all around.
My niece works in administration within the British Columbian Healthcare system. she writes saying many doctors and nurses have left the public sector or now work within both systems profitably. She has heard many patients complain that their family doctors have left their practices either going to corporate sector opportunities or have retired. So now citizens who had difficulty finding a family doctor are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Simply Screwed. There is now a further shortage of emergency room doctors and nurses in B.C., Alberta, and Manitoba. Burnout, mental stress issues, and no future chances of wage advancement are pushing our essential service workers away.
The Conservative Government of Premier Ford seems to react, never planned responses are seen. They push our public service, waiting to see if the public will support the public workers among us, like kids in a schoolyard. Amateur night at Queens Park. Then the Premier stands back, claims mea culpa and admits to making an error. Our Liberal-minded Conservative Premier still has deep objectives to achieve in Ontario, and keeping the healthcare team in check is one of these. Massive amounts of revenue have been spent in Ontario and across Canada. This revenue was borrowed and will need to be repaid someday. That is what is on the Premier’s mind always. Conservatives and their budgets, their pocketbooks. Not that it is their money, but politicians are genetically altered to spend public money. It is an addiction only a revolution can possibly bring to light, and then solve.
what’s the problem with our politicians? Why do they always respond after the fact?
Well as Nikita Khrushchev said “Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even when there is no river( no need)” Why we placed our healthcare needs into the hands of such people is beyond me.
Steven Kaszab
Bradford, Ontario
[email protected]
