Rally expected outside health-care meetings between premiers and PM in Ottawa

Workers from 20 health-care-related organizations are to rally on Parliament Hill on Tuesday.

They’ll be demanding the federal government attach some rules to any health-care money or deals with provincial governments.

Premiers from across the country, including Saskatchewan’s Scott Moe, are to be at the meeting. Moe is expecting some back-and-forth talks between Ottawa and the provinces over just how much money could be transferred to the provinces, and over what length of time.

The Canadian Health Coalition’s Pauline Worsfold, a registered nurse, said any money the provinces get should come with a set of spending rules.

“The funding must come with strict accountability mechanisms to be put in place to ensure accountability and transparency. Prime Minister (Justin) Trudeau must insist that premiers guarantee that each dollar transferred from the federal government is used for health care, not for tax cuts or wasteful rebates,” she said Monday.

The coalition is also demanding that any additional provincial health-care money be used for public health care rather than private, for-profit clinics.

“Because profit doesn’t care,” she added.

Worsfold said frontline workers feel overwhelmed, burned out and underappreciated — and patient care is suffering.

Moe is hoping for something in the $28-billion ballpark from the federal government to the provinces. The plan in Saskatchewan is to expand the number of surgeries both in the public and private sectors to address the province’s huge surgery backlog.