Toronto - The Ontario Health Coalition called the government's home care review "smoke-and-mirrors" in a press conference at Queen's Park today.
The Coalition has been told that the Minister of Health instructed Elinor Caplan to look only at procurement procedures in her review, making it clear that the damaging policy of competitive bidding will continue. Caplan has no mandate to look at alternate models to competitive bidding. She will not be able to consider scrapping the
controversial process that has dramatically escalated for-profit privatization and created hardships for patients across the Province.
"The Minister of Health promised a review of competitive bidding but has instead set up a smoke-and-mirrors process to entrench privatization for the long term," said Ross Sutherland, a nurse and coalition spokesperson. "The government will not even consider evidence from any other Canadian provinces with non-profit delivery of home care."
"Turning public money into private profits is what competitive bidding is all about," said OPSEU President Leah Casselman. "You'd think that's something Elinor Caplan would investigate - but she won't."
"From the point of view of people receiving care in their homes, the 'managed competition' process has worked against continuity of caregivers right from the start," said Ethel Meade of the Ontario Coalition of Senior Citizens' Organizations. "We had high hopes that this review would have helped."
At the press conference, the coalition released a policy paper containing a set of recommendations for public reform of homecare. The paper is available at www.ontariohealthcoaliton.ca.
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For more information, contact
Natalie Mehra (Ontario Health Coalition) 416-230-6402
Rick Janson (OPSEU) 416-443-8888 ext 207
