LETTER: Privatization won't fix Ontario's health care issues

SooToday received the following letter to the editor from reader Bill Slater in response to a story from Thursday 

After reading Government taking steps to fix health care, Sault MPP Romano says I felt the need to comment.

First of all, anyone living in the Sault knows that nurses have been getting their education at Sault College for many years.

There was a nursing program when I attended the college in 1989. It was done through a partnership with Laurentian University. The only thing that has changed is when you graduate your degree now says Sault College instead of Laurentian. What is this doing to increase the number of local nurses? 

This leaves me with the question of how much of the rest of the article is twisted truths to convince us that the present government is actually doing something.

In September, my son was injured in a mountain biking accident. His upper jaw and lower jaw was broken so many times that the doctor said it resembled a broken eggshell. This happened on a Thursday and he was scheduled to have surgery the following Tuesday in Toronto. Wednesday morning, he was still in his bed at the Sault Area Hospital.

Apparently, Ornge, who was supposed to transport him to Toronto, was 5 -6 days behind schedule. My son then signed himself out of the hospital and I transported him to Toronto. He missed his operation which wasted both the Toronto hospital and staff’s time.

This pushed back other surgeries because of the missed opportunity. My son was then scheduled to have his surgery the following Wednesday 13 days after his accident.

I went to Mr. Romano’s office because I thought this was a good example from his riding that he could use to make change. I was given a phone number of a hospital employee to voice my concerns.

I tried to explain that I wanted to talk to someone with power to affect change in the system and not blame people that were doing the best they could. I think it is important to note that all the people at both hospitals were awesome and provided excellent care to the best of their ability in a broken system. I was not allowed to make an appointment to talk to Mr. Romano.

Privatizing medical care will not fix the broken system.

If there are not enough health professionals to staff our current facilities, where will they come from to staff the for-profit facilities. If you want my vote be open and honest, discuss the issues and propose ways to fix the  system.

Don’t just add another system to complicate the issues. When my car breaks down, I figure out how to fix it. I don’t just leave it in the driveway and buy another one.

Bill Slater