{"id":32290,"date":"2026-09-17T12:28:32","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T16:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/?p=32290"},"modified":"2026-09-22T12:34:44","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T16:34:44","slug":"new-report-takes-aim-at-underused-hospital-equipment-as-private-clinics-receive-government-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/index.php\/new-report-takes-aim-at-underused-hospital-equipment-as-private-clinics-receive-government-funding\/","title":{"rendered":"New report takes aim at underused hospital equipment as private clinics receive government funding"},"content":{"rendered":"

(September 16, 2026) By: Maegen Kulchar, The Kingston-Whig Standard<\/p>\n

The Ontario Health Coalition (OHC) is pushing the Ford government for answers as to why it\u2019s funding private for-profit imaging clinics, while publicly-funded hospitals are left with equipment such as MRIs going unused. A comprehensive 32-page report by Natalie Mehra, the executive director with the Ontario Health Coalition, argues that despite the Ford government paying…<\/em><\/p>\n

The Ontario Health Coalition <\/a><\/span>(OHC) is pushing the Ford government for answers as to why it\u2019s funding private for-profit imaging clinics, while publicly-funded hospitals are left with equipment such as MRIs going unused.<\/p>\n

A comprehensive 32-page report<\/a><\/span> by Natalie Mehra, the executive director with the Ontario Health Coalition, argues that despite the Ford government paying $155 million in public money to open private MRI and endoscopy clinics in 2025, local facilities such as Kingston General Hospital, and many others across the province, have MRI machines and surgical rooms that sit idle for hours every day.<\/p>\n

Mehra\u2019s report collected information from various communities across Ontario. She noted that while Kingston General Hospital currently has three MRI machines, two operate from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. after hours.<\/p>\n

“What we really have is instead of add-ons, we have takeaways. What this government has been doing is essentially funneling money from the public health hospitals, our public hospitals, and putting it into private clinics.”\u00a0Joan Jardin, co-chair of the Ontario Health Coalition<\/em><\/p>\n

A similar trend also went for operating rooms, as explained by Joan Jardin, co-chair of the Ontario Health Coalition on Tuesday. The report pointed out that many are unused, closed permanently, or used for storage.<\/p>\n

\u201cKingston has 11 operating rooms and two procedure rooms. Two of the operating rooms are used for obstetrics and gynecology 24\/7, and only one operating room is used until 11:30 p.m., and only one is used overnight,\u201d Jardin said. \u201cTwo operating rooms are used during the daytime on weekends, and the rest of the operating rooms are closed after 3:30 and not used on weekends. So, there\u2019s a lot of capacity to actually increase that.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of the many issues raised in the report by Mehra titled Bait and switch: How the Ford government\u2019s private clinics are taking away from local public hospitals, lengthening wait times, and threatening public Medicare<\/span>.<\/a><\/em><\/div>\n
\n

Its evidence-based approach spoke to the threat public clinics have on Ontarians\u2019 access to publicly-funded medical care, and how for-profit clinics use deceptive upselling methods, effectively \u201cbaiting\u201d patients with the promise of publicly covered procedures, only to \u201cswitch\u201d or add significant out-of-pocket-fees.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we really have is instead of add-ons, we have takeaways,\u201d Jardin said. \u201cWhat this government has been doing is essentially funnelling money from the public health hospitals, our public hospitals, and putting it into private clinics. Really, it still remains unlawful to charge people for healthcare, to charge for things that are medically necessary, and yet we are seeing now with the private clinics that there is actually double billing. There is overcharging and there\u2019s upselling, so that\u2019s a real problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2021 the Ford government awarded licenses to private clinics so they could perform eye surgeries, such as for cataracts, at a time when wait times were long. Although Premier Doug Ford has previously said that residents would pay with their OHIP card, never their credit card, the report found that patients were upsold unnecessary procedures, sometimes walking away with bills as high as $8,000.<\/p>\n

For Kingston resident and Queen\u2019s University Professor Emerita, Leda Raptis<\/a><\/span>, that\u2019s exactly what happened to her.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my own experience of cataract surgery, I paid 3,000 bucks (per eye). It\u2019s just so insane,\u201d said Raptis, who compared the price difference to Germany, where her mother-in-law had the same surgery for approximately $700.<\/p>\n

\u201cEuropean countries can have public and private systems operating in parallel while regulating what private providers charge,\u201d Raptis wrote in a letter to Member of Parliament for Kingston and The Islands, Mark Gerretsen. \u201cI am very concerned that expansion of for-profit care in Canada, particularly with the potential involvement of large U.S health care and insurance corporations, will instead lead up toward American-style prices and access based on ability to pay.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the report, a study by the Canadian Medical Association found that between 2017 and 2022, 93,5729 cataract surgeries were conducted. Within private for-profit centres, the rate of surgeries rose by 22 per cent, while those with a lower socioeconomic status having surgery in a publicly funded hospital fell by 8.5 per cent.<\/p>\n

The report also argues that even though the investments in private clinics have only hit hundreds of millions, that money could have better used in the public system. It also points out that unlike private hospitals and clinics, public hospital operational funding has not met increases in inflation alone, let alone the growth of communities.<\/p>\n

Public hospital operational funding increased from nearly $24.3 billion to close to $27.5 billion between 2020 and 2024.<\/p>\n

The report noted that the increase of $3.8 billion did not keep up with the cost of living or Ontario\u2019s population, which increased by 9.1 per cent between 2020-2026.<\/p>\n

“In my own experience of cataract surgery, I paid 3000 bucks (per eye). It’s just so insane.”\u00a0Leda Raptis<\/cite> Kingston resident and Queen\u2019s University Professor Emerita<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cOver time governments have been trying to input for profit and they\u2019ve been resisted, and so we need to continue to resist again,\u201d Jardin said. \u201cHealth care is a fundamental right, and we should be pushing it, and we should be demanding it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The OHC is asking the federal government to uphold the Canada Health Act and keep health care public for all of Canadians. They are asking residents to contact their elected representatives and make their stand known.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should be supporting all of Canada. We value the people who live in rural areas in the north, in the west, and the east and we are making a very unequal society and unequal access to healthcare. We should recognize and empathize that that\u2019s a real problem,\u201d Jardin said.<\/p>\n

Click here for the original article<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Clarification: Joan Jardin is Co-Chair of the Kingston Health Coalition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(September 16, 2026) By: Maegen Kulchar, The Kingston-Whig Standard The Ontario Health Coalition (OHC) is pushing the Ford government for answers as to why it\u2019s funding private for-profit imaging clinics, while publicly-funded hospitals are left with equipment such as MRIs going unused. A comprehensive 32-page report by Natalie Mehra, the executive director with the Ontario […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ohc-in-the-news"],"yoast_head":"\nNew report takes aim at underused hospital equipment as private clinics receive government funding - Ontario Health Coalition<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"(September 16, 2026) By: Maegen Kulchar, The Kingston-Whig Standard The Ontario Health Coalition (OHC) is pushing the Ford government for answers as to\" \/>\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\/new-report-takes-aim-at-underused-hospital-equipment-as-private-clinics-receive-government-funding\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New report takes aim at underused hospital equipment as private clinics receive government funding - 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