WATERLOO REGION - Waterloo Region residents should be worried about the province's plan to create a super agency overseeing all health care, said NDP Catherine Fife.

"I think people should be very concerned that major health-care decisions will be coming out of Toronto," said Fife, MPP for Waterloo. "It feels very much like Doug Ford just wants to put his own brand on health care and remove those local decisions."

Along with getting rid of local health integration networks that decide on how best to direct funds in a region, Fife said the reforms announced by the province on Tuesday create an incredible amount of power to contract out and privatize health care.

"The entire bill is concerning," she said.

She said it's also unclear how dissolving Cancer Care Ontario and Trillium Gift of Life Network, among other agencies, into this large body will be helpful. Cancer Care Ontario is known internationally for its innovation, while Trillium has made great strides in improving organ transplant rates.

Fife warned that the changes will cause "upheaval" in the system and "usually people fall through the cracks when that happens."

The way to make real strides in reducing hallway medicine is to focus on prevention, but Fife said that's lacking in the plan. "There's no mention of true transformation."

Jim Stewart, co-chair of the Waterloo Region Health Coalition, called the plan "absolutely dreadful."

"It's going to end in the destabilization of public health care," Stewart said.

Stewart was disturbed by the shortage of details offered about the plan, which the government seems to be moving forward on quickly without public input.

"We didn't vote for this," he said.

He's concerned that centralizing all aspects of health care in one agency grants it all sorts of new powers while eliminating boards that meet publicly or a requirement for public consultations. It will fragment health care while providing a blueprint for privatization, he said.

"It allows the super agency to privatize with the stroke of a pen," Stewart said.

A spokesperson for the Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network declined to comment on the plan, saying the province asked them to defer all media questions to the ministry.

Ontario currently has a large network of provincial and regional agencies, clinical oversight bodies and 1,800 health service provider organizations - which the Progressive Conservative government says creates confusion for both patients and providers trying to navigate the system.

"Our government is taking a comprehensive, pragmatic approach to addressing the public health-care system," said Mike Harris, MPP for Kitchener-Conestoga. "By relentlessly focusing on patient experience and on better connected care, we will reduce wait times and end hallway health care. Waterloo Region can be confident that there will be a sustainable health-care system for them when and where they need it."

Fife said that Christine Elliott, Minister of Health and Long Term Care, couldn't provide vital details when announcing the plan on Tuesday.

"She could not answer how much money the plan would save, how many people would lose their jobs as a result of this new super agency."

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