VANCOUVER Cuts to the health care system will be nothing short of deadly, CUPE BC president Barry ONeill said today after learning that about 7,000 jobs will be lost over three years.
There is no way that the Campbell Liberals can mask the human destruction that will be caused by their health care cuts, ONeill said. Once again, the damage has been done secretively and the blame will be passed down to the regional health authorities.
Three hospitals will be closed in the interior health region: Kimberley, New Denver and Enderby. Castlegar, Summerland and Lytton will lose out-patient and emergency services. Thousands of acute care beds will be closed or replaced with vaguely defined assisted living and residential beds.
The brutal cuts and resulting hospital closures will hit elderly British Columbians harder than anyone. The Liberal plan calls for major cuts to nursing home care.
Once again, the Campbell Liberals have gone after the most vulnerable in our communities to pay for their crazed dash to balance a budget, privatize public services and deunionize the province, ONeill said.
Liberal cabinet ministers and MLAs have steadily claimed that they have not cut health care, ONeill added. But the evidence of this decimation will soon be tallied in human lives.
Liberal MLAs have no choice now but to speak out for their constituents or hide while people die in their communities due to the cuts.
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Contact:
Ron Verzuh, CUPE Communications,
(604) 785-1422.