Ford government’s law allows more surgery in private clinics

Premier Doug Ford’s government has passed health-care reforms aimed at easing wait-lists by clearing the way for more publicly funded surgeries and procedures in private clinics — a move critics say will sabotage medicare.

Called the Your Health Act, the bill introduced to controversy in January allows more for-profit clinics to provide cataract and other surgeons, as well as diagnostic tests including CT scans and MRIs, all paid for by OHIP.

“This is about getting rid of the backlog, making sure we help people get well again,” Ford said Monday, as the opposition parties charged with the new law will lead to more out-of-pocket expenses for patients.

Under the legislation, about 14,000 more Ontarians will get cataract surgeries this year instead of waiting after delays for procedures grew longer during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Progressive Conservative MPP Robin Martin, parliamentary secretary to Health Minister Sylvia Jones.

“Too many people are waiting for care too long,” Martin said.

The government will begin taking applications for clinics this summer, and will decide which ones to license depending on local needs. There are already more than 800 private clinics in Ontario that provide cataract care and other procedures such as diagnostic imaging, the costs of which are covered by OHIP. Hip and knee replacement surgeries could be done in private clinics as early as next year.

The Ontario Nurses’ Association joined other health-care unions in warning that private clinics granted licenses under the law could teach nurses and other medical professionals from hospitals that are already struggling with staff shortages, making it tougher to care for patients in the public hospital system .

“We have already seen for-profit surgical clinics and nursing agencies pay double the wages offered in public hospitals,” said ONA president Erin Ariss, an emergency room nurse from Waterloo Region.

“This will draw burned-out staff out of our public system and exacerbates the staffing crisis.”

New Democratic Party Leader Marit Stiles predicted the legislation would be the start of a slippery slope to “a two-tier system where a select few (patients) will jump to the front of the line and everyone else is going to have to wait longer. ”

Stiles joined other parties in questioning why work is being farmed out from hospitals to private clinics when hospitals have operating rooms that are not being fully used.

“No one has been able to explain to me why that makes sense,” said interim Liberal leader John Fraser.

Martin said all clinics would be required under the law to post online and on their premises any extra charges that were not covered by OHIP, but Liberal MPP Adil Shamji (Don Valley East) said that was not enough to protect patients from being charged for services above and beyond what OHIP covers at a time when they are vulnerable.

“Patients will be left with lighter wallets since this government refused to put protections against upselling and up-charging in place,” Shamji said.

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