According to the socialist trade union ACOD LRB, several local authorities plan to outsource home care services, service voucher companies, daycare centers, after-school childcare services and residential care centers to private players. “This puts pressure on quality and accessibility,” says chairman Dries Goedertier. “Too often, privatization is sold as efficiency, but in practice it often means savings on personnel, higher costs for users and less democratic control. Healthcare belongs in public hands.”
That is why they are taking action. In West Flanders this happens in Ostend and Kortrijk, among others, but actions are also organized in other provinces. The union not only wants to focus on local authorities that privatize healthcare institutions, but also wants to put local authorities in the spotlight that are putting private healthcare institutions and daycare centers back into public hands.
In Kortijk, for example, it was decided to transfer the services of a non-profit organization and 607 employees to the OCMW. This concerns five residential care centers, a central kitchen, a day care center, a home care service and after-school childcare.
