For Immediate Release
24 January, 2023
NDP Leader, James Dinn, MHA for St. John’s Centre says the announcement by private for-profit ambulance provider, Fewer’s Ambulance Services, to cancel service to Trepassey due to lack of profit underscores the pitfalls of for-profit healthcare.
“What was announced today by this for-profit private healthcare provider is case in point to the concerns we have been raising about privatized healthcare services,” said Dinn. “When they couldn’t make money off people in emergency situations, the private company announced they were cancelling the service. We cannot look to private healthcare providers as the solution to the healthcare crisis. It will make the situation worse, as the people of Trepassey are seeing today,” Dinn said. “The people of Trepassey deserve better, and the people of this province deserve better.”
The NDP Leader is calling on the Premier to follow through on his comments to media last week where he said that his intention was not to privatize public healthcare in an effort to address the healthcare crisis. Today’s announcement should be a call for the province to strengthen the public healthcare system and roll back privatization of healthcare that exists today, and expand the delivery of public healthcare to guarantee that people and communities have access to a reliable and timely province-wide ambulance service.
“Not having enough sick calls to turn a profit should not be the decision factor that strips communities of healthcare services,” said Dinn. “A strong publicly funded, publicly delivered, healthcare service is the only way that we can ensure that loss of services like this one do not happen.”
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For further information, contact Eddy St. Coeur, Director of Communications, NDP Caucus at 729-2137 (o), or eddystcoeur@gov.nl.ca