home  Re: 'Private funding never an option at Centenary: Martin,' Mirror, Oct 26. The sanctity of our public healthcare system and our hospitals still remain threatened by "construction financing." This seems to be the current buzzword that is temporarily replacing P3 and privatization. Whatever you call it, it doesn't mean a publicly funded hospital. The Scarborough Health Coalition has held several meetings and has spent much time in our communities speaking to people about this issue. Understanding what is actually being said by the government regarding Rouge Valley Health System and P3 privatization is vital in ensuring publicly funded healthcare. So far, we've heard a variety of stories ranging from denial to the emergence of yet another new model of funding. We need to remember that the issue here is with the provincial government - we need to tell our MPPs and Premier Dalton McGuinty to keep privatization out of our hospitals. While it is unlikely that the smaller re-development at the Centenary Health Centre will be privatized through a P3 model (as it is small and less lucrative for the private sector), as admitted earlier this week in The Mirror, it is extremely likely the Ajax-Pickering site will be a privatized P3 (regardless of its label). This would, of course, impact the budget of the entire hospital - Scarborough and Ajax sites - and anything attempting to prove otherwise would be under false pretense. Through our many discussions in Scarborough regarding P3s, privatization and even "construction financing," what should be noted is that in the Brampton hospital deal, the P3 privatization of the services extended to all the hospital sites in the corporation, even though the P3 was only at one building. We have seen the high costs of P3s sucking money out of clinical budgets and leading to doctor, nurse and bed cuts. Why should we believe the opposite will happen here? The Scarborough Health Coalition was created in response to the activity surrounding Rouge Valley and will remain active until we feel the threat of P3 privatized healthcare has been quashed. We welcome concerned members of Scarborough to work together with the Health Coalition in ensuring that Centenary Health Centre remains a 100 per cent public hospital. Abbas Syed & Effie Vlachoyannacos |