HAMILTON – A former
editor of the New England Journal of
Medicine is speaking in Hamilton
Tuesday night, warning Ontarians of
the perils of health care
privatization.
Dr. Arnold Relman,
professor emeritus at Harvard
Medical School, will speak at the
Miller Amphitheatre of St. Joseph’s
Healthcare October 2nd at 7:30 pm.
“If Canada were so
unwise as to allow privatization to
grow in its health-care system, it
would sooner or later experience all
of the problems driving the U.S.
system towards collapse,” Relman
recently wrote in the Globe and
Mail.
Hamilton is the
location of Ontario’s most recent
health care privatization battle:
St. Joseph’s Healthcare is
abandoning the last three public lab
collection sites in the city, giving
up the locations to private sector
laboratory companies.
“Those who have seen
Michael Moore’s Sicko will not want
to miss this opportunity to hear
first-hand how privatization is
changing the face of the health care
system,” says Patty Rout, 1st
Vice-President of the Ontario Public
Service Employees Union, which is
sponsoring the event.
Relman’s visit also
comes on the heels of John Tory’s
commitment to open up Ontario to
for-profit health care clinics.
Relman is one of the
most respected physicians and health
care advocates in the U.S. His new
book, A Second Opinion: Rescuing
America’s Health Care (2007), argues
the U.S. health care system is
failing because of its increasing
focus on generating profit for
insurers and providers.
Admission is free,
however, seating is limited.
