Ontario’s Private Clinics Fiasco: Online Forum

On November 2nd, a new report, At what Cost? Ontario hospital privatization and the threat to public health care confirmed the negative impact of the Ford government’s plans on Ontario’s public hospitals and patients. Report author Andrew Longhurst of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) rebuts the government’s rationale for privatization by showing that sufficient funding for public hospitals can significantly improve surgical backlogs.

Among the report’s startling revelations is the massive difference in stated government expenditures on private clinics versus the actual spending.

Days after the report was published, we learned that former Health Minister Christine Elliott, who gave private clinic Don Mills Surgical Unit a 278% funding increase while she was minister, is now a lobbyist for the clinic’s parent company, Clearpoint Health Network. Her official registration says her lobbying goals are to “engage the government in updating and increasing the base funding amount available to Clearpoint.”

A CBC investigation found that procedures at Don Mills Surgical are paid for by the government at double or triple the cost of procedures performed in public hospitals. These findings are the tip of the iceberg of the lack of accountability, higher costs, corruption and profiteering that the Ford government is unleashing with Bill 60.