Ontario’s Private Clinics Fiasco: Online Forum
ARM members are invited to the online forum hosted by the Greater Toronto Health Coalition.
Higher costs, corruption…
ONTARIO’S PRIVATE CLINICS FIASCO
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.
Join us for an online forum
Tuesday November 28th at 7 pm eastern
with:
- Andrew Longhurst, research associate, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives; author of the recently published report, ‘At What Cost? Ontario hospital privatization and the threat to health care’
- Pam Parks, nurse, co-chair, Durham Health Coalition
- Kevin Skerrett, Ottawa Health Coalition
- Natalie Mehra, executive director, Ontario Health Coalition
For more on this issue, please see the CBC report: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-doug-ford-private-clinic-surgeries-fees-hospitals-1.7026926