Ottawa rally today to protest massive health care changes

Workers and patients gathered outside Queen's Park on April 30, 2019 to protest changes being made to Ontario's health care system.

Ottawa — Health Care cuts from hospital overcrowding to ambulance services will be the focus of a major rally at TD Place at Lansdowne Park today.

Organizers are expecting more than one thousand people to attend the rally.

It's a protest organized locally by the Ottawa Health Coalition.

The Ford Government is changing the structure of health care services in Ontario.

One of those changes involves Public Health Care Units.

The government wants to merge Ottawa's Public Health Unit with four others in Eastern Ontario.

That would mean a new health unit covering an area from the Quebec border to Cornwall, Renfrew and  Kingston.

Ambulance service would also see major restructuring.

The Ford Government is proposing to eliminate 49 of 59 local ambulance services in Ontario.

Ambulance dispatch would also be centralized.

Today's event is billed as a family friendly rally with speeches, music, hotdogs and snacks.

It begins at 11.am at the TD arena.