TORONTO — Ontario is expanding the private delivery of public health care by funding clinics to perform more cataract surgeries, MRI and CT scans, colonoscopies, hip and knee replacements and other procedures in an attempt to ease pressures on the hospital system.
Making the announcement Monday, Premier Doug Ford lamented "endless debates" about who should deliver health care and said all he cares about is getting people the care they need quickly and safely.
"The way I can describe it, you have a dam, you have a log jam, are you going to just keep pouring the water up against the logs?" Ford said.
"Or are you going to reroute some of the water and take the pressure off the dam? You see what happens when the dam has too much water, it breaks."
Ford and Health Minister Sylvia Jones unveiled a three-step plan Monday to deliver more procedures at private clinics. Both stressed that the surgeries and tests will continue to be paid for by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan, though critics worry what the plan will do to hospital staffing and say patients are sometimes pushed to pay out of pocket for add-ons at the private clinics.
Hospitals also offer out-of-pocket options, Ford staffers note, and Jones said the Ministry of Health can investigate if a private clinic is not offering the OHIP-funded option at all.
Ford said it's time to start thinking differently about the health system.
"One CEO, and I won't name him, said...'There's only two places in the world that have the health care that we have, the same system, is Cuba and North Korea,'" Ford said.
"Like, really? We need to improve. So we're making the changes with the support of the CEOs and with the associations."
The first stage of the plan involves adding 14,000 cataract surgeries through "new partnerships" at centres in Windsor, Kitchener-Waterloo and Ottawa.
As well, the province is putting $18 million in existing centres across the province for MRI and CT scans, cataract surgeries, other ophthalmic surgeries, certain gynecological surgeries and plastic surgeries. Jones said that will help the wait lists for those procedures return to pre-pandemic levels by March.
Subsequent steps in the plan are set to include expanding the scope of private surgical and diagnostic centres, including more colonoscopy and endoscopy procedures, and in 2024, expanding surgeries at clinics for hip and knee replacements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 16, 2023.
The Canadian Press
