“Last week, we learned this Conservative government is paying private, for-profit clinics two to four times more than they pay public hospitals for OHIP-covered surgeries.” – Niagara Falls Riding NDP MPP Wayne Gates.
A News Release from the Constituency Office of Wayne Gates, NDP MPP for the Niagara Falls Riding which includes Fort Erie and Niagara-on-the-Lake
Posted November 20th, 2023 on Niagara At Large
Niagara Falls NDP MPP Wayne Gates, whose riding also includes Niagara-on-the-Lake and Fort Erie
QUEEN’S PARK – Official Opposition NDP Long-Term Care Critic, MPP Wayne Gates (Niagara Falls), questioned the Ford Conservatives during Question Period about the recent revelation that the government is paying for-profit private clinics substantially more than public hospitals for OHIP-covered surgeries:
“Last week, we learned this Conservative government is paying private, for-profit clinics two to four times more than they pay public hospitals for OHIP-covered surgeries,” said MPP Gates. “Also, the former Minister of Health is now lobbying for Canada’s biggest chain of private surgical clinics.
“This comes after a recent report that noted that expanding private surgeries will NOT reduce wait times,” said Gates. “In fact, it will increase wait times for patients while worsening our staffing crisis in Ontario. Why is the Premier choosing to put profits for private clinics before care for patients in Ontario?”
Gates referenced a recent report (https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpolicyalternatives.ca%2Fpublications%2Freports%2Fat-what-cost&data=05%7C01%7CBMason%40ndp.on.ca%7Ce8dff41974d84a11ef7308dbea02c99f%7C6b9fd2ec77a64ae0822a6bb9108fb274%7C0%7C0%7C638361069917249063%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=yCxhLjSxXyuY%2Bt8LXwS2cMZjL4ozLcr%2F2xlEZ4JmKoA%3D&reserved=0) from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives that showed for-profit delivery of health care in the Province will worsen public sector staffing shortages, risks unlawful extra-billing, costs more, and may risk patient safety & care quality.
“This isn’t the first time a Conservative government in Ontario privatized public care,” said Gates. “The Mike Harris Conservatives did it with long-term care. Six thousand people died in long-term care during the pandemic – 78% were in private, for-profit facilities. The military was called into some of those homes – because some residents were dying of dehydration.
“The Premier then gifted those homes with legal protection so families couldn’t sue them for negligence, and he gave some homes multi-decades-long license renewals. Why won’t the Premier acknowledge the mistakes of the previous Conservative government, repeal Bill 60, and invest in our publicly funded, publicly-delivered, not-for-profit health care instead of the profits of private shareholders?”
A Brief Footnote from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – It is important for Ontario citizens to know that when former Conservative Premier Mike Harris -a good friend of Doug Ford’s – got through making it easer for private, for-profit retirement and long-term care facilities to proliferate across the province while Harris’s government was in power in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Harris went on to sit on the board of one of the largest chains of privately run retirement and LTC facilities in the province.
Mike Harris and Doug Ford share the same rancid political DNA
That, in itself, is an example of the former Harris government and current Ford government using their power to serve the interests of private corporations rather than than for all of the people of Ontario.
For more on that, click on – https://canadians.org/analysis/mike-harris-raking-profits-long-term-care-system-he-helped-create/
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