Hospital workers staging anti-privatization protest in Hamilton

Hospital workers part of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions are staging an anti-privatization demonstration in Hamilton today.

The group says it is in response to the Ford Government’s plan to deliver private MRIs and CT scan services.

The union’s president said in a statement the provincial government has been “underfunding and starving the public system, and dangling privatization as a solution.”

“Privatization is twice as expensive and comes with longer waiting lists,” the union said.

At 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, union members will demonstrate outside MPP Neil Lumsden’s office.

Last month, the province announced plans to nearly double the number of publicly funded MRIs and CT scans available through private clinics as part of a broader plan to expand services like cataract surgery, and hip and knee replacements.

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