Petitions, public opinion and hospital restructuring in Kitchener-Waterloo

A survey was collected in 1996-97 in which, early in the petition-gathering process by the Save Our Hospital Campaign to prevent the closing of St. Mary's Hospital in Kitchener, Ontario, known petition signers and a general cross-section of the public were sampled. The survey data demonstrated that signers of the "Save St. Mary's" petition did indeed have strong views about local health issues. The general public and the petition signers were differentiated not so much by personal health experiences or amount of contact with hospitals as by general concern among petitioners about the erosion of health care together with a conviction that the public should have a strong voice in health care decision making.