A patient advocacy group is starting a campaign to stop the Ontario government from moving some medical services out of public hospitals and putting them into private clinics.

The Ontario Health Coalition says the Wynne Liberals want to take such things as diagnostic services, physiotherapy and some surgeries out of hospitals – and have them provided by private clinics.

The group says private clinics are a direct challenge to universal medicare and claims they often impose fees that are illegal under the Canada Health Act.

The coalition’s referendum hopes to get 50,000 people to vote against the decision to move hospital services to private clinics.