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Toronto First, do no harm. That is the warning issued by the Ontario Health Coalition in light of John Tory’s campaign to open the gates to U.S.-style for-profit hospitals and clinics.
The coalition released a report today, First Do No Harm: the Evidence from Ontario’s Experience with For-Profit Diagnostic and Hospital Clinics, containing evidence of higher costs, worsening staff shortages and closures of local health services caused by for-profit clinics of the exact model proposed by John Tory.
Many physicians are deeply concerned about the negative impact of these for-profit hospitals and clinics on our patients. For-profit clinics skim healthier patients out of hospitals, leaving the public system to care for more complex patients with less money. In addition, the linking of insured to uninsured services in for-profit clinics presents barriers for Ontarians who cannot and should not pay for essential health care services, said Dr. Danielle Martin, chair of Canadian Doctors for Medicare.
For-profit ownership has nothing to do with wait times. To reduce wait times we need to focus urgent attention on increasing the number of nurses, doctors and health professionals and improving the organization of care. An expansion of private for-profit clinics will worsen shortages and prevent sound organization of care; it will shunt scarce resources over to the private sector instead, said Doris Grinspun, Executive Director of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario.
“In fact, the for-profit MRI-CT clinics introduced by the Eves government poached radiation technologists, actually worsening staff shortages in nearby public hospitals. Rather than increasing capacity, they forced the public hospitals to cut back on their MRI hours while the private clinics were laughing all the way to the bank, remarked Patty Rout, a technologist and vice president of OPSEU.
Tory’s proposal would open the floodgates to U.S.-style for-profit privatization of all our hospital services, including the doctors and nurses. While John Tory’s proposal may benefit the for-profit health lobby, it does not help patients, concluded Natalie Mehra, director of the Ontario Health Coalition. Most Ontarians believe it is wrong to make profit from a cancer patient. This study shows that for-profit hospitals are not only an affront to our values, but are also a danger to our public health system.
Key Findings:
1. For-profit ownership has no relation to wait times. In fact, recent cuts to for-profit labs across the province have resulted in long line-ups for blood tests. The Harris/Eves for-profit MRI- CT clinics reduced capacity in the public hospital system.
2. There are not enough health professionals to sustain a private tier of for-profit clinics. The for-profit MRI/CT clinics have worsened staff shortages in local hospitals leading to cuts in the non-profit hospitals. Since they are not set up for emergencies or complex patients, they take the lighter cases and leave behind the heavy care with less staff.
3. The for-profits favour urban centres where there is a bigger market from which they can make money. Diagnosticare x-ray clinics were closed down in small towns across Ontario leaving patients to travel further for services because the company found 15% profit rates not high enough.
4. The for-profit clinics lack accountability. They are rife with secret contracts, even though taxpayers are funding them. The provincial auditor found the for-profit cancer treatment centre at Sunnybrook cost more than public cancer centres with taxpayers footing the bill. After receiving millions in provincial and municipal grants funded by taxpayers, Diagnosticare shut down local services to the detriment of patients.
The full report is available at www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca
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For more information:
Ontario Health Coalition, 416-230-6402
Patty Rout, 416-443-8888 ext. 8383
Dr. Danielle Martin, 416-779-8841 (available 1 – 5 pm only)
Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, 416-599-1925
