The Hospital Professional Division has received funding from the OPSEU board to conduct a major campaign this fall that will involve locals across the province.

The HPD has drafted a five-point platform. We are asking locals to use it to lobby MPPs from all three parties in anticipation of the October 6, 2011 election. 

The plan is to get our ideas out early to try and influence the platforms of the three main parties well in advance of the election.

The campaign will involve two stages: 

1. Beginning September 27 we will be visiting as many locals as possible to do a short presentation on the five-point platform and to provide the tools you will need for the lobby. These presentations can vary between 25 minutes to 45 minutes, depending on the time available.
2. After the presentation, locals are asked to book appointments with area MPPs to carry out the lobby. After the lobby, we will ask you to answer a number of questions about the MPPs response.  

At the core of the platform is the question of health care sustainability. The government has been repeating the mantra that health care will take up to 70 cents of every dollar the province spends within 12 years if nothing is done. While it has caught many headlines, the data around health spending does not support this claim. However, the government has been using this figure to scare the public into accepting funding cuts to hospitals.  

While the government cries poor, it continues to cut taxes, undermining the ability of the public sector to maintain services, including health care. Health care received an increase of $2.2 billion this fiscal year, but the government spent $4 billion on corporate and personal tax cuts. 

Polls have indicated Canadians would be willing to pay more in taxes to improve public health care, and support for Medicare has actually dramatically increased.  

To that end, there will be a variety of tools to assist in our campaign:

• Buttons and stickers are on order that read: “Tax cuts or health care? You Choose: October 6, 2011”
• Car magnets will be produced with the same message
• A leaflet will be produced to distribute to members and MPPs on the five-point platform
• A short video will be produced to be shown at meetings and placed on YouTube
• A basic lobby kit will be assembled including data on health care funding  

The fall meetings with locals can take the form of Lunch N’ Learns, be part of a local’s normal meeting, or be a special evening meeting. We will try and tailor the presentations to your situation.  

These kind of lobbying events have been very successful in the past. Bill 168 could not have happened without this kind of effort from our membership. Your postcards and e-mails also were effective in moving the government away from a potential funding freeze for this year. With an election on the horizon, we have an excellent opportunity to protect health care funding into the future. 

Below find our latest draft of the Five Point Platform. 

I look forward to hearing from you soon. 

Sara Labelle, Chair, OPSEU Hospital Professionals Division

 OPSEU Hospital Professionals Division – Five Point Platform 

1. Ontario needs to address its health care challenges by recognizing a public single-payer health system is the most sustainable delivery model.
   1. Ontario must stop delisting health care by effectively moving services out of hospitals to private user-pay settings.
   2. Ontario can deliver more efficient health care by expanding the scope of the system to include key health services that are presently uninsured.
   3. Ontario must stop privatizing hospital services.
   4. Ontario must stop using tax cuts to undermine the ability of government to respond to the needs of our communities.

2. Hospitals are the hub of community-based care and must be financially supported to meet local health needs.
   1. Ontario needs to financially assist public hospitals in eliminating debt so that resources can be applied to quality care, not on interest payments.
   2. Hospitals need a fair funding system that recognizes the unique health needs of each community.  

3. Ontario must immediately address the growing professional shortages, including the more than 200 diagnostic, rehab and acute care professions integral to the good-functioning of a public hospital.
   1. Ontario must continue to aggressively increase the available seats for training new health professionals as well as to retain those already in the system.
   2. Ontario must abandon its compensation freeze before it makes the province less competitive in recruiting and retaining needed health professionals.
   3. Ontario must recognize that current staffing levels are leading to unsustainable workloads that compromise quality care and undermine patient safety.
   4. Ontario must establish full-time targets for diagnostic, rehab and acute care health professions.

4. Hospitals are publicly-funded and must be run in a manner that opens up their operations to full public scrutiny.
   1. Hospitals must be placed under Freedom of Information legislation.
   2. Ontario must join the rest of Canada by opening up public hospitals to the full scrutiny of the Ombudsman’s office. That scrutiny must include public-private partnership deals.
   3. Ontario must make open hospital board meetings mandatory.

5. Ontario must improve the quality of management at its hospitals and introduce a fair and consistent method of executive compensation.
   1. Ontario must establish an environment of continuous learning in our hospital system, including executives.
   2. Health care professionals do not need bonuses to do their job properly. Neither should hospital executives. Executives should be driven by the same spirit of public service expected from health professionals.
   3. Compensation of senior executives should be fully reported, including taxable benefits, bonuses (if they continue) and additional public income earned from serving as supervisors/peer reviewers/consultants.

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