MEDIA ADVISORY - 100 patients, families and concerned residents travel to the Ontario Legislature as Wynne government forces through the mega-mergers of their local hospitals

TORONTO/DURHAM, Nov. 25, 2016 /CNW/ - This week, the Wynne government used extraordinary powers to order the forced merger of the hospitals in Durham and Scarborough. The merger will cost almost $50 million, taking this money away from patient care. In Durham side of the merger, the Ajax-Pickering Hospital will be taken over by Lakeridge Health and the community will lose all remaining control over the future of their local hospital. The community has fundraised for and built that hospital since 1958. Across the region, services will now be rationalized across a much wider geography, forcing patients to travel from site-to-site-to-site for care. The merger, which is being pushed through by fiat from the Health Minister against the opposition of the community, is really a mega-merger of hospitals that were already merged. The communities affected already lost many services after the first merger. One hundred residents from Bowmanville, Oshawa, Whitby, Port Perry and Ajax are travelling in to Queen's Park today to bring their message of opposition directly to Ontario's Legislature.

When:	Monday, November 28 at 12 p.m.
Where:	Outside the main doors of the Legislature (south facing doors) at Queen's Park, Toronto.
Who:	Durham and Ontario Health Coalitions, including concerned residents and patients of the hospitals from Bowmanville, Oshawa, Whitby, Port Perry and Ajax.

SOURCE Ontario Health Coalition

Natalie Mehra, executive director, [phone] (cellular) or [phone] (office).