(Novemeber 6, 2023)<\/p>\n
By: Darren Taylor, SooToday.com<\/p>\n
A small but concerned group of people gathered at the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library\u2019s main branch Monday morning\u00a0for an information session on the role of for-profit health care in Ontario.<\/p>\n
The group listened to findings in a report titled\u00a0At What Cost? Ontario hospital privatization and the threat to public health care<\/em>, written by Andrew Longhurst, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives research associate.<\/p>\n A key recommendation contained in Longhurst\u2019s report is for Ontario\u2019s publicly funded hospitals to keep their operating rooms open longer for surgical procedures \u2014\u00a0during evening hours and weekends \u2014\u00a0to cut down on surgical wait times and thereby steer away from for-profit healthcare.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know from the Ontario Health Coalition that there are two operating rooms here in the Sault that are sitting idle,\u201d Longhurst told Monday\u2019s audience, referring to\u00a0Sault Area Hospital.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re not staffed up. They can\u2019t perform surgeries and the other four operating rooms are likely performing very regular schedules, like a 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. standard schedule, so what we need to do is build that acute care capacity and sustain it over the long term, to staff up those operating rooms so we can perform more procedures and look at extending operating hours into evenings and weekends.\u201d<\/p>\n That same change is needed at hospitals across Ontario, Longhurst said.<\/p>\n Longhurst is a health policy researcher at Vancouver\u2019s Simon Fraser University currently presenting his findings on a tour of Ontario communities.<\/p>\n \u201cThis will reduce wait times. It\u2019s been proven again and again but that investment needs to be made. We know from the Auditor General that 34 per cent of hospitals in the province have unused operating room capacity and we need to extend and expand and make full use of this existing infrastructure that taxpayers have already paid for and have sitting in our hospitals. Let\u2019s make use of it,\u201d Longhurst said.<\/p>\n The Ontario government\u2019s Bill 60 allows cataract surgeries and diagnostic imaging and testing to be expanded at for-profit clinics.<\/p>\n The government aims to increase the number of hip and knee replacement surgeries at those clinics in what the government says is a strategy to reduce wait times at publicly funded hospitals.<\/p>\n Despite Premier Doug Ford\u2019s assertion that patients at for-profit clinics will pay for procedures with their OHIP cards and not their credit cards, opponents say that higher paying for-profit clinics will pull more doctors, nurses and medical technicians away from an understaffed public medical system, increasing already-long public health system wait times and endangering patients\u2019s health and lives.<\/p>\n Longhurst was accompanied at Monday\u2019s presentation by Michael Hurley, Toronto-based Ontario Council of Hospital Unions CUPE president and Al Dupuis, Blind River-based Ontario Health Coalition (OHC) spokesperson for the Sault and Algoma District.<\/p>\n Dupuis said extended hours for operating rooms is something the OHC fully supports and that the organization has urged the province to put that measure in place.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re aware of our position. It\u2019s a point that\u2019s been made time and time again to the government, to say \u2018look, just keep your operating rooms open.\u2019 The government\u2019s aware of it but that’s not their game plan. They want to satisfy whatever lobbyists they’re catering to with the for-profit strategy,\u201d Dupuis told\u00a0SooToday<\/em>.<\/p>\n Longhurst began writing his report in January.<\/p>\n It was officially released Nov. 2.<\/p>\n While wait times for diagnostic imaging, surgeries and healthcare in general are of importance for all ages, a senior in attendance at Monday\u2019s presentation urged young adults to be vigilant and speak out for the preservation of Ontario\u2019s publicly funded healthcare system.<\/p>\n \u201cThe amazing thing is how important this is and how little attention it\u2019s getting,\u201d said Don Corbett.<\/p>\n \u201cI think people are frustrated and frightened right now because our doctors and nurses are retiring or leaving and they\u2019re finding themselves without a doctor to care for them. For my generation, the baby boomers, that\u2019s frightening and alarming because most of us have grown up with the OHIP system in Ontario.\u201d<\/p>\n Corbett, an OHC member, said younger people in Ontario are understandably concerned with other life issues such as the price of food, vehicle purchases and mortgages but urged them to take a closer look at Ontario political leaders\u2019 stances on healthcare.<\/p>\n Corbett said for-profit healthcare delivers less and is life threatening.<\/p>\n \u201cThe question that we would ask young people is \u2018are you aware, do you care?\u2019 When you go to the voting booth in provincial elections, have you listened to their platforms, do you understand and can you see the repercussions of getting governments that are so private-oriented and profit-oriented that they would put the population in that kind of danger?\u201d<\/p>\n