{"id":29064,"date":"2023-11-02T15:03:20","date_gmt":"2023-11-02T19:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/?p=29064"},"modified":"2023-11-03T10:26:04","modified_gmt":"2023-11-03T14:26:04","slug":"report-release-report-demands-ford-government-scrap-private-surgeries-and-invest-in-public-hospitals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/index.php\/report-release-report-demands-ford-government-scrap-private-surgeries-and-invest-in-public-hospitals\/","title":{"rendered":"<FONT COLOR=\"#E00000\">REPORT &#038; RELEASE:<\/FONT> Report advises Ontario government to scrap private surgeries and invest in public hospitals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(November 2, 2023)<\/p>\n<p>Toronto \u2013 Drawing on new data from Freedom of Information requests, financial and statistical analysis, and research, a new report raises red flags about the Ford government\u2019s privatization of our public hospitals\u2019 core services including diagnostics and surgeries. The report, <strong><em>At What Cost? Ontario hospital privatization and the threat to public health care<\/em><\/strong> published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives lays out a cogent analysis of the negative impact of the Ford government\u2019s plans on Ontario\u2019s public hospitals and patients. It makes startling revelations such as the massive difference in stated government expenditures on private clinics versus the actual spending.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIncreasing surgical and diagnostic capacity depends on the availability of qualified staff, which is not magically increased by the addition of profit,\u201d said Andrew Longhurst, political economist and author of the new report. \u201cOntario has the physical space and equipment to improve wait times for surgeries and medical imaging; what is missing is the health-care workforce and funding necessary to do the work.\u201d Longhurst, a Simon Fraser University health policy researcher, is concerned that Ontario is set to repeat the mistakes of Alberta, a province that saw wait times increase and total surgical volumes decline as public funding and staffing were diverted into investor-owned centres.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday, 1,290 patients are on stretchers in hospital hallways waiting for beds. There are 170,000 patients waiting beyond medically recommended guidelines for surgeries, 17,000 of these are children. Of that 170,000, over 2,400 died last year waiting for surgeries and 9,000 died on waiting lists for MRIs and CT scans. 145 emergency departments are closed due to lack of staff,\u201d added Michael Hurley, president of the CUPE\u2019s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU). \u201cThe Ford Conservatives promote private hospitals and private surgeries, even though it is well documented that private hospitals have higher death rates and worse outcomes than public hospitals \u2013 and that private surgeries are much more expensive. This report details clearly why the Ford government must scrap its campaign to reward its rich investor friends and instead do its job to properly fund our public hospitals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn Toronto and across Ontario, hospitals have operating rooms that are closed after 4 pm and on weekends,\u201d noted Natalie Mehra, executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition (OHC). \u201cFor example, in Toronto on April 1, Michael Garron and Sunnybrook hospitals partnered on an initiative to expand central intake for hip and knee surgeries and open additional operating room time on weekends to provide 1,335 hip and knee surgeries and plan to reduce Toronto and region wait lists by 24% in one year. The Ford government could \u2013 and should \u2013 have opted to expand public capacity in this way but instead is choosing to go the much more costly, dangerous, and slower route of expanding privatization.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ontario has <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/index.php\/briefing-note-health-care-funding-briefing-note-putting-the-fall-economic-statement-in-context\/\">increased<\/a> <\/span>overall health funding by 1.2% this year, less than rate of inflation of 5.6% \u2013 in economist terms \u201ca real dollar cut.\u201d However, the sky\u2019s the limit for private clinics and hospitals. The new report revealed that the Ford government has increased their funding for for-profit surgeries by 45% and public funding to the for-profit Shouldice Hospital and Don Valley Surgical Unit have increased 19% and 278% respectively since the Ford Conservatives were elected.<\/p>\n<p>The report finds that provinces that have the most for-profit clinics and hospitals (British Columbia, Quebec, Alberta) generally show poorer wait time performances than provinces with no or little to no privatization.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/Media-Release-web-vrsn-OCHUCUPE-CCPA-OHC-Toronto-Report-demands-Ford-government-scrap-private-surgeries-and-invest-in-public-hospitals-2023-11-02.pdf\">Click here for printable version of release<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/policyalternatives.ca\/publications\/reports\/at-what-cost\">Click here for full report<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(November 2, 2023) Toronto \u2013 Drawing on new data from Freedom of Information requests, financial and statistical analysis, and research, a new report raises red flags about the Ford government\u2019s privatization of our public hospitals\u2019 core services including diagnostics and surgeries. The report, At What Cost? Ontario hospital privatization and the threat to public health [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,73,74,9,61,62,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hospitals","category-hospitals-media-releases","category-hospitals-reports-analysis","category-privatization","category-privatization-media-releases","category-privatization-reports-analysis","category-whats-new"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>REPORT &amp; RELEASE: Report advises Ontario government to scrap private surgeries and invest in public hospitals - Ontario Health Coalition<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"(November 2, 2023) Toronto \u2013 Drawing on new data from Freedom of Information requests, financial and statistical analysis, and research, a new report\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/index.php\/report-release-report-demands-ford-government-scrap-private-surgeries-and-invest-in-public-hospitals\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"REPORT &amp; 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