Campaign against cutbacks to Huron Perth hospitals kicks off with community postcard campaign

STRATFORD, ON, July 15, 2014 /CNW/ - Staff of Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance hospitals represented by CUPE will hold a media conference at 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday July 16 at 151 Lorne Avenue East, to kick off a campaign to protest plans to cut staff and services and to ask for additional funding for the Alliance, says Michael Hurley, president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions/CUPE (OCHU).

The Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance is considering the closure of 17 beds across 4 sites, due to a budget deficit. Ontario has frozen hospital funding for 3 years. The Auditor General estimates that hospitals need a 5.8% increase annually to meet their basic costs. Ontario spends the least on its public hospitals of any province in Canada.

Downsizing hospitals, cutting beds and privatizing diagnostic and some clinical services has been central to the provincial Liberal governmentÕs health care changes. Hospitals in smaller communities are particularly threatened under this plan.

Plans include a postcard campaign directed to the Minister of Health, Eric Hoskins, and a community meeting will be held on July 30 at 7 p.m. at 151 Lorne Avenue East.

SOURCE: Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (CUPE)

Michael Hurley, President, Ontario Council of Hospital Unions/CUPE (OCHU). 416-884-0770; Treena Hollingsworth, Vice-president, OCHU, 647-537-4357