Public meeting on seniors health held in Windsor tonight

A public meeting addressing seniors health and retirement security will be held at Windsor's Fogolar Furlan Club Monday night.

The Canadian Medical Association has teamed up with the Canadian Labour Congress to push for a national seniors strategy. Local union leaders will also be at the meeting.

"We think if we can fix the way we care for seniors, we can fix the health care system," said Dr. Chris Simpson, the president of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA). "The problem with the system now is one of sustainability…we're not going to be able to pay for the system if we keep doing things the way we are."

Simpson said another issue is the way seniors are ill now is different than 40 years ago.

"People typically have multiple chronic condition," he said. "Now they have diabetes, and dementia, lung disease, heart disease and all these complex problems that require something other than a hospital base system to really look after well."

Simpson said health care should be about helping people age well in all facets, not "warehousing them in hospitals waiting for some next steps in the system like long term care."

Hassan Yussuff, president of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) will also be at the meeting.

"What we've been calling for quite some time is to expand the Canada Pension Plan, and provide better benefits for the seniors who are already retired living in poverty," said Yussuff. "We continue to advocate for the need for us to fix the system, before it's too late…and too many seniors in this country are living in poverty."

Yussuff said there are fundamental issues in the system that need to be fixed, such as having access to a family doctor instead of putting stress on emergency rooms, not being able to afford medication, preventing seniors from getting well and better access to home and long term care.

The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. and goes on until 8:30 p.m.