Dear Dr. Parfrey,
Over the past several months, we have witnessed a deeply concerning and deliberate move towards privatization within Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services (NLHS). This is not just a trend, it is a direct and strategic assault on the very foundation of our public healthcare system, and it is an affront to the hardworking, dedicated individuals who keep that system running.
As the president of NAPE, representing the thousands of workers who form the backbone of this province’s healthcare system, I want to make you aware that we see through the tactics being employed by NLHS and the government to dismantle public health services, and we will not stand idly by as these efforts intensify.
The workers of NAPE will not allow our public system to be undermined, and we are prepared to do everything in our power to defend it.
Our members are the heart of the healthcare system. They are the ones working on the frontlines, caring for patients, running labs, and keeping our hospitals, clinics, and other facilities functioning. They are also the unseen workforce, those maintaining infrastructure, handling logistics, and ensuring the day-to-day operations that keep our system working. This is not just a job for them; it is a commitment to the health and well-being of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. And it is becoming increasingly evident that NLHS is actively trying to erode that commitment by contracting out services and privatizing key components of the healthcare system.
In the past few months, we have seen a dramatic escalation of these efforts. The contracting out of maintenance services at the new mental health and addictions facility in St. John’s is just one of the most glaring examples. This sets a dangerous precedent that could have far-reaching consequences for public health services across the province.
In September, the Union received a notice that the Special Assistance Program (SAP) was being contracted out, something that had been in the works since 2019.
Just this week, we received yet another notice to contract out snow-clearing services at the Carbonear General Hospital.
These recent decisions by NLHS are an insult to our members, and they’re an insult to the people of this province. We are seeing the same disturbing trend over and over again, the attempt to privatize our public healthcare services piece by piece, undercut union workers and drive-up costs for taxpayers in the process.
But privatization doesn’t stop there. There are other, more insidious tactics being used to push the public system to the brink. Take, for example, the recent crisis in blood collection services. Clinics have been forced to reduce service, leaving patients with no access to critical services. This issue has persisted for weeks. This is not an isolated problem; it is a manufactured crisis designed to push the public system to its breaking point, and the vacancy rate crisis is happening in other departments such as nuclear medicine, to name a most recent example.
The goal, of course, is to make privatization seem like the only viable option, when we know that the real solution is to properly fund and support the public healthcare system we already have and ensure we have the courses and training available in the province to supply the workforce.
The introduction of the “Halo system” (a remote, privatized monitoring system for long-term care facilities) only furthers this agenda. While this may be marketed as innovation, it is, in fact, a thinly veiled attempt to privatize yet another critical healthcare service under the guise of technological advancement. Remote monitoring by an Ontario-based company is not a solution; it is a step towards further outsourcing and privatizing services that should remain firmly in the hands of public healthcare workers who live and work in the province.
Dr. Parfrey, we understand the broader strategy at play here. This strategy, “the death by a thousand cuts”, is playing out before our eyes. Every dollar diverted towards privatization is a dollar stolen from the healthcare system that Newfoundlanders and Labradorians depend on. And the more services are outsourced, the more control is shifted away from the people who truly care about the health of this province, the dedicated public healthcare workers who are part of NAPE.
As NAPE prepares to enter into a critical round of public sector bargaining, I wanted to write you as CEO of NLHS to make it abundantly clear, stopping the privatization and contracting out of public healthcare services will be a top priority for the Union.
We are prepared for this fight. We will not allow these continued efforts to undermine our healthcare system to go unchecked. We will mobilize, we will organize, and we will stand strong in our defense of public healthcare.
NAPE will do whatever it takes to protect our public healthcare system and our members. We will not stand by while this system is dismantled piece by piece. We are prepared to do what we need to do to stop privatization.
Sincerely,
Jerry Earle
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