The chair of the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance board has downplayed concerns over the provincial government’s proposed changes to the health-care system.
Greg Aarssen, the head of the local hospital board, said the board has a mandate to run the best hospital system it can for Chatham-Kent and that hasn’t changed with the introduction of Bill 74, the Progressive Conservative’s People’s Health Care Act that will merge different local health integration networks into a single Ontario Health super-agency
Other health-care organizations, including Cancer Care Ontario, will also be included in this agency.
“While we’re mindful of it, and are certainly cognizant that some of these things may come in and could potentially impact what we need to be focusing on and how we discharge our responsibility, we are also cognizant that until such mandate comes forward we are going to drive forward with our current mandate,”Aarssen said.
The board will “wait patiently” to see how the changes will play out, but hospital CEO Lori Marshall and her team are receiving information about this as it trickles in, he said.
“We are being cautious not to be reactive to it,” said Aarssen. “We will be thoughtful in our process, and will be careful in our planning and will be prudent in our execution of it if, and when, those changes come about and we expect that they will.”
The Chatham-Kent Health Coalition recently organized a town hall to discuss concerns about the bill.
Coalition chair Shirley Roebuck said Bill 74 gives the single agency powers to open the health-care system to further privatization.
“There’s no end to their powers,” she said at the March 21 meeting. “We should not be making profit from the ill. We’re going to fight until we drop about this.”
Aarssen said he has “no idea on any of that,” referring to privatization.
“I have to believe that the people who are making those kinds of decisions will be cautious and careful about them,” he said. “If and when they ever do come to fruition, I’m sure there will be good reason for it, but for now I have not heard anything of that nature other than some sabre-rattling by some people that may or may not have information.”
The board chair acknowledged there are people who feel they haven’t been consulted adequately about changes which will affect them.
However, he noted the Ford government is saying people were consulted at the ballot box when they voted for a party that said it would “find ways to reduce the debt in this province.”
“They’re trying to find a way to make sure that we give the best care, the best delivery, the best response for the dollars that are being taxed and collected in this area for the people of Ontario,” Aarssen said.
Shortly after Aarssen made these comments Friday, the government revealed it accepted 30 people out of the more than 1,400 who applied to present before the standing committee on the bill.
– With files from Trevor Terfloth
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