Letter to the Editor

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Dear Editor:

It appears to me, thankfully, that in Canada, health care services are on the front burner these days. 

This is, in the main, due to the rising costs involved. Raw numbers prove this. But the overall significant number is the percentage of budgeted amounts provided for these services, by our taxes, which, in my view, have not become unbearable. 

At the federal level, the Canada Health Act is going to be under scrutiny as part of the discussions of the mainly fiscal responsibilities it assumes. As with education, the provision of these services is a provincial responsibility.

In Ontario, we are faced with a government which believes that “bigger is better” so that, as far as hospitals are concerned, the fewer left standing, the less it will cost! Losing local hospitals, in rural areas, can be disastrous if and when any urgent or emergency care is required.

When a hospital is closed, its medical and other health care providers will follow. This means that through any weather conditions, the patients will have to be transported, by family and friends, to these so-called “Centers of Excellence”- and who knows how far or how long this may take?

What is not discussed - and recognized - is that the provision of care and treatments for sick and injured persons is a "Personal Service” which only trained professionals can, and should, provide. 

Health ministries and their business administration graduates do not fill the bill! This plan MUST BE STOPPED. (If these planners succeed, it would force these employees of ours to live, with their families, in designated rural areas!)

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Monday, June 13, 2011