{"id":19642,"date":"2022-10-26T09:57:50","date_gmt":"2022-10-26T13:57:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/?p=19642"},"modified":"2022-10-26T11:56:03","modified_gmt":"2022-10-26T15:56:03","slug":"release-briefing-note-the-ford-government-lied-to-the-public-re-their-privatization-of-public-hospital-services-health-coalition-demands-ford-stop-their-privatization-of-our-hospitals-kicks-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/index.php\/release-briefing-note-the-ford-government-lied-to-the-public-re-their-privatization-of-public-hospital-services-health-coalition-demands-ford-stop-their-privatization-of-our-hospitals-kicks-off\/","title":{"rendered":"RELEASE & BRIEFING NOTE:<\/FONT> The Ford government lied to the public re. their privatization of public hospital services: Health Coalition demands Ford stop their privatization of our hospitals, kicks off major campaign to save our local public hospitals"},"content":{"rendered":"

(October 26, 2022)<\/p>\n

Toronto \u2013The Ontario Health Coalition released a brief today charging that the Ford government lied to the public about its privatization of Ontario\u2019s public hospital services. The Coalition reported that the Ford government significantly increased<\/em> funding to private clinics while at the same time denying that they were expanding the private clinics. The denials were made in written and verbal statements to media across Ontario in the months leading into the election. In addition, the Coalition reports, after outright denial of their plans to privatize prior to the provincial election, as soon as the election was over the Ford government announced it is indeed going to privatize our public hospitals\u2019 services.<\/p>\n

The Coalition released the proof in a press conference today, demanding Ford to stop his privatization of our public hospitals\u2019 services and take real action to deal with the emergency in health care that his government had a significant hand in creating. The Coalition also launched a major public campaign to mobilize Ontarians to save our local public hospitals and stop Ford\u2019s privatization. They joined with Democracy Watch to call for an honesty-in-politics law to penalize political parties that engage in misleading the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ford government lied to the public leading into an election,\u201d said Natalie Mehra, executive director. \u201cYou can\u2019t just outright deny you are expanding private for-profit clinics while you are in fact shunting millions over to expand private for-profit clinics. You can\u2019t pretend you are not going to privatize before an election and then, as soon as the election is over, announce plans to privatize. By every measure, this is wrong. It is fundamentally undemocratic and cannot go without challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ontario public will not tolerate such deception. Nor will we tolerate the Ford government failing to deal with the strain our public hospitals are under while at the same time funneling public money over to profit seeking corporations to privatize our public hospitals\u2019 services,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Ms. Mehra announced that the Health Coalition — which represents more than \u00be of a million Ontarians, more than 400 member organizations and local chapters across the province — plans for a major fightback including province-wide townhall meetings, community organizing, protests and escalating actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ford government has no mandate. They made sure of that when they deceived the public about what they were doing and what they intended to do. We will fight this and we will not stop until they stop privatizing Ontarians\u2019 public hospitals,\u201d she concluded.<\/p>\n

“The misleading statements made by Ford government representatives before and during the 2022 provincial election about their plans for Ontario’s health care system are just one of many examples of the need for an honesty in politics law to penalize misleaders who violate voters’ rights by baiting them with false statements and election promises and then switching direction when they get elected,” said Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch, who joined the Coalition in a press conference this morning.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Briefing Note and Evidence: <\/strong><\/p>\n

Pre-Election: Error, Denial & False Statements<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Before the election, Health Minister Christine Elliot made a bombshell statement,<\/p>\n

“We are opening up pediatric\u00a0surgeries, cancer screenings\u2026Making sure that we can let independent health facilities operate private hospitals.\u201d <\/em>https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/player\/play\/1998422595853<\/span><\/a>\u00a0 (38 second mark).<\/p>\n

(Independent Health Facilities are private clinics.\u00a098% of the\u00a0IHFs are private for-profit<\/span><\/a>\u00a0according to Ontario\u2019s Auditor General. Some do outpatient surgeries. None have overnight stays.)<\/p>\n

It was an odd thing to say because the Private Hospitals Act banned private hospitals in Ontario starting 50 years ago\u2014for good reason. Ontario has spent more than 100 years building a public hospital system. The Private Hospitals Act grandfathered-in the existing private hospitals and banned any new ones. It also bans the expansion of the existing private hospitals. There are only two private hospitals left that provide surgeries (Shouldice Hospital and Don Mills). They provide services for healthy patients who are at low risk. (One of our members was recently refused surgery at Shouldice because he has COPD, for example. One of our interns could only get surgery there if he could meet a target weight.) \u00a0The Minister\u2019s statement that the Ford government was going to allow private clinics to operate private hospitals came at the same time as the province was – and continues to – privatizing long-term care, home care, vaccines, COVID testing, and is allowing for-profit virtual care companies and COVID testing corporations to charge patients for access to doctors and vaccines respectively, in violation of the Canada Health Act. There was sufficient reason to be deeply concerned.<\/p>\n

The Ontario Health Coalition immediately held 20 virtual local press conferences followed by 20 local emergency summits across the province to raise the alarm. They encouraged the media to question the government about the Minister’s statement.\u00a0 Representatives from the Ministry of Health attended some of these summits. Spokespeople from the Minister\u2019s office got in touch with reporters and\/or answered media interviews. The Minister\u2019s spokespeople claimed that the Minister misspoke or was misinterpreted. \u00a0They categorically denied plans to expand private health clinics and hospitals.\u00a0They actually\u00a0said that any claim that they were expanding private clinics was “categorically false”. <\/u>Examples:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \u201cThese claims are categorically false\u2026To be clear, the government is committed to supporting the province\u2019s public health care system.\u00a0The use or function of private hospitals and independent health facilities in Ontario is not being expanded or changed.\u201d\u00a0https:\/\/www.therecord.com\/news\/waterloo-region\/2022\/03\/17\/privatization-of-health-care-claims-are-categorically-false-ministers-spokesperson-says.html<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Pressed further on the coalition\u2019s concern about the potential for an expanded privatization of health-care services and for more private hospitals to open, she said, \u201cNo, that is not accurate.\u201d https:\/\/www.sudbury.com\/top-stories\/health-care-privatization-an-election-issue-ontario-health-coalition-5083727<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  3. A spokesperson for Elliott and the Ministry of Health denies the allegations by the LHC. “These claims are categorically false\u2026The use or function of private hospitals and independent health facilities in Ontario is not being expanded or changed.” https:\/\/london.ctvnews.ca\/london-health-coalition-fights-to-stop-privatization-of-health-care-with-new-campaign-1.5851916<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n
  4. \u201cClaims that the government is looking to allow more for-profit health care in Ontario (are) categorically false\u2026The use or function of private hospitals and independent health facilities in Ontario is not being expanded or changed.\u201d\u00a0 https:\/\/www.intelligencer.ca\/news\/health-coalition-blasts-private-care-provincial-approach<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    These statements were made by Ford government spokespeople Feb – April.\u00a0However, data from the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario — a body which reviews Ontario’s fiscal reporting and which reports to the Ontario Legislature — shows that the government in fact\u00a0doubled<\/u> the funding for the private clinics [Independent Health Facilities] from the third quarter to the fourth quarter — the same time period as government spokespeople were definitively claiming they were not expanding the use or function of private clinics. According to the FAO, in the final quarter of the last fiscal year January 1 – March 31, 2022, the Ford government increased funding to private clinics [Independent Health Facilities] by more than $13.6 million. This was not because they underspent in previous quarters. Overall for the year, the Ford government increased their projected spending for IHFs by more than $12 million.\u00a0 See Q4 Spending- Line 305 Independent Health Facilities here: https:\/\/tinyurl.com\/3tfejdp5<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

    Post-Election:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

    Despite the categorical claims by the Ford government that they were not intending to privatize and were not expanding privatization, two months after the election, the Ford government announced that they ARE going to privatize public hospital services and expand private for-profit clinics and hospitals:<\/p>\n