Minutes - October 23, 2002

Minutes  Kingston Health Coalition
October 23,  2002.
Room C252 - Hotel Dieu Hospital

Convened 6:30 pm

1. Minutes of. meeting of  Sept 12, 2002   were reviewed and accepted

2.  Financial Report.  Only outstanding debt is about $130.00.  Have about
$800 in account.

3. Ottawa Rally, Ottawas rally was smaller than Brampton's 3,000 but good
spirit, and  Kingston's participation was a significant part, (2 buses and
some people went up on their own).

4.  Kirby will table his report on Friday , October 25- we need at least
letters to the editor in response.

5.  Charlie Stock alerted the group to the agenda of the Ontario Hospital
Association conference Nov 19.  The whole day will be boosting private
involvement.  The OHC is holding a  meeting in Toronto Monday Oct 28 in
the morning to work on a strategy on how to deal with all these issues
(including the Romanow Report)

6. The success of the Forums was reported, not only in Kingston, but in
the 22 other communities in which they took place.  The activity has been
extended to 23 other communities, mainly those without Health Coalitions
with the intention of mobilizing other communities to form Health Coalitions.

7.  It was agreed that we should seek a meeting with MPs Milliken and
McCormick to have them make known on the public record their positions on
Public Medicare.  Mary McPhee and Ross Sutherland will make an appointment
and see McCormick.  Matthew Gventer, Linda Dowdle, and Christine McMillan
and Charlie Stock are to be recruited to see Milliken.  Steve Garrison,
Sister Pauline and the young Liberal who participated in the petition
campaign (Donovan) are to be invited. Janet Collins will make an
appointment aiming for the 8th of November.

8.  Romanow Report Strategy.  We will meet within two days after the
report is issued.  An Executive Summary will be available.  Goal to educate
ourselves and plan our campaign of response.

9.  Jan 18 in Toronto a Province wide general assembly is planned to
organize how the OHC groups will respond to the Romanow Report.  It was
agreed that we need to inform the leadership of the OHC that we want to be
informed in advance if the meeting will be consultative or will have the
purpose of energizing the campaign.  Some people would prefer a
consultative process.

10.  Home Care: We had an open discussion on the plight of Home Care
workers and patients.  Inadequate pay, unpredictable work assignments, inadequate
funding and harassment of workers wishing to organize were mentioned as
concerns.  The KHC undertook to use its network to locate Home Care workers
to gather information and to help them to organize a common
effort.  In addition to asking our members and affiliates to provide names
and phone numbers of Home Care Workers, we agreed to prompt the convening
of a forum in co-operation with CUPE, SEIU, and OPSEU to raise the
visibility of the Home Care issue. Target date in February or March.  Use
KHC phone number as the contact point for Home Care Workers or to put us
in touch with Home Care Workers. - 374-5258

11. Adjournment.
Next meeting
27th November,
6:30 pm at
Room C252
Hotel Dieu Hospital