New Study to Be Released by York U.'s National Network on Environments and Women's Health to Show Ontario, Not Alberta, is Poster Province for Privatized Health

TORONTO, December 1, 1999 -- A new report by the National Network on Environments and Women's Health at York University (NNEWH) will be released this Friday, reporting that Ontarians pay more out of their own pockets for health care than other Canadians, including Albertans. The report will also reveal that Ontario is privatizing health care extensively and rapidly, and that women in Ontario -- both as patients and as health care providers -- are bearing the brunt of the province's health care restructuring and privatization efforts.

The study Women, Privatization and Health Care Reform: The Ontario Case, comes amidst a barrage of national media coverage on the health care debate. Alberta's plans to allow private health care facilities to operate in the province, for instance, has received a lot of ink and airtime while capturing the attention of the Federal Health Minister. And in Toronto, an owner of a private seniors' home has been charged with violating sanitation standards.

"Women, both as patients and the primary providers of health care services, are being put at considerable risk while provincial governments embark on sweeping health care reforms and privatization," said York University Sociology Prof. Pat Armstrong, a partner with the NNEWH, who co-authored the report with Carleton University Social Work Prof. Hugh Armstrong.

The report examines prevailing trends in Ontario's health care system, concluding that these trends are putting women patients at risk and are adversely affecting work environments for women health practitioners. The report refers specifically to the impact of changes in the areas of: hospital restructuring; for-profit nursing homes; the contracting out of services; long-term residential care; community care access centres; home care; physicians and primary care; midwifery; mental health; occupational rehabilitation; and targeted programs for women and health information technology.

The report will be released at a news conference at the Queen's Park Media Studio, Friday, December 3, 10 a.m.

WHO:
York University Sociology Prof. Pat Armstrong, a partner with the National Network on Environments and Women's Health at York University, Carleton University Social Work Prof. Hugh Armstrong

WHAT:
Women, Privatization and Health Care Reform: the Ontario Case, a new study on the effects of health care restructuring and privatization on women's health, and on women as health care practitioners.

WHEN:
Friday, December 3 at 10 a.m.

WHERE:
Media Studio, Ontario Legislature, Queen's Park

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For more information, contact:

Prof. Pat Armstrong
Department of Sociology
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 55015
patarmst@yorku.ca

Prof. Hugh Armstrong
School of Social Work
Carleton University
(613) 520-2600, ext. 1890
hugh_armstrong@carleton.ca

Ken Turriff
Media Relations
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 22086
kturriff@yorku.ca
YU/135/99