On Tuesday, December 3, the Hospital Professionals Division (HPD) held a healthcare public policy conference titled ‘Better Care for our Future’.Local Presidents and Highest-Ranking members of HPD attended the full-day event. Panel discussions focused on:
- From dead last in Canada to the average: restoring public hospital capacity, stopping closures and protecting local services.
- Rolling back privatization: experiences with re-publicizing/repatriating health care services that have been privatized.
- Restoring and revitalizing Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) and Public Health, Infectious disease prevention and health and safety in a COVID world.
- Expanding the public as an antidote to privatization.
Numerous healthcare experts and advocates shared their expertise during the panel discussions, including:
- Professor Pat Armstrong (York University): a Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
- Doly Begum, MPP: Ontario NDP Member of Provincial Parliament for Scarborough Southwest.
- Darryl Galusha: RN and CEO of Geraldton District Hospital.
- Rebecca Graff-McRae, PH.D (Parkland Institute): Research Manager for the Parkland Institute at the University of Alberta.
- Michael Hurley (OCHU-CUPE): President of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions.
- Alia Karim, Ph.D: Senior Research Officer at CUPE National.
- Sara Labelle (HPD Chair): multidisciplinary Medical Laboratory Technologist with a specialty in genetics.
- Natalie Mehra (Ontario Health Coalition): Executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition.
- Danyaal Raza (University of Toronto and Decent Work & Health Network): Family physician, Assistant Professor, and incoming Primary Care & Health Policy Scholar at St. Michael’s Department of Family & Community Medicine.
- Shalom Schacter, LLB: Rabbi and Union Labour Lawyer.
- Adil Shamji, MPP: emergency physician and public policy advocate.
- Abdu Sharkawy (University of Toronto): Internal Medicine & Infectious Diseases Specialist at the University Health Network and Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto.
- Vivian Stamatopoulos (Ontario Tech University): Leading advocate for Long-Term Care residents in Ontario.
- Dick Zoutman (Queen’s University): Emeritus Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences, Schools of Medicine at Queen’s University, past Inaugural Chief of Staff at the Scarborough Health Network and past Chief of Staff at Quinte Health.
In every discussion, this was glaringly obvious: the business-model, privatization-focus that the Ford government is bringing to Ontario’s healthcare system will only make the healthcare crisis worse over time.The PC government’s failure to consult with healthcare professionals and policy experts has led to a chronically underfunded public system where hospitals are struggling to meet demand for care and healthcare workers are overworked and burnt out.By continuing to share insights and expertise about how we can build and strengthen the public healthcare system, we add fuel to the fire in our fight for better public healthcare!
