Doug Ford expanding medical procedures covered by OHIP in private clinics
Ontario is expanding privately run surgical and diagnostic centres to deliver MRI and CT scans for patients 'paid for by their OHIP card not their credit card,' says Premier Doug Ford.
Ford said Friday his Progressive Conservative government would spend $155 million over two years on 57 new private clinics licensed to deliver scans and gastrointestinal endoscopy services across the province.
'These centres will help cut wait times and provide convenient, publicly funded care for people in their communities so they can get care when they need it, paid for by their OHIP card not their credit card,' the premier said at the Schroeder Ambulatory Centre in Richmond Hill.
The Tories hope the expansion of 35 diagnostic centres and 22 endoscopy clinics will help 1.2 million people access such services more quickly and 'relieve hospital capacity' at a time when the system is bursting at the seams.
'Right now, a lot of hospitals are at full capacity, but this will relieve them,' insisted Ford, whose government has been criticized for increasing the role of private-sector in health-care delivery.
'At the end of the day, the people want to know when they can get their hip replaced or their knee replaced, or get cataracts done or get an MRI or a CT scan — and we're taking a massive burden off the system and off hospitals,' he said.
But a cloud was cast over the announcement by word that 200,000 home-care patients had their health data breach due to a 'third-party vendor.'
Liberal MPP Adil Shamji (Don Valley North), a medical doctor, said the province's information and privacy commissioner should investigate the leak of the personal health information of tens of thousands of Ontario Health atHome patients on or around March 17.
'As elected officials, we are accountable to the people who elected us. That is why I feel it is my obligation to notify the commissioner and compel Premier Ford to act on this clear and present risk to patients,' said Shamji, expressing concern about privacy violations, identity theft and insurance fraud.
'If your personal health information had been stolen, how long would you want to wait before being told? It has been three and a half months, and to my knowledge, not one of the 200,000 or more affected Ontario Health atHome patients has been notified,' he said.
'That's nearly one third of all home care patients in Ontario at risk.'
Health Minister Sylvia Jones confirmed 'Ontario Health is absolutely investigating right now.'
'We have a division that focuses on any potential cyber breach and, as is standard operating (procedure), we will — Ontario Health and Ontario Health atHome — will notify if there has been any form of breach to individual patients, but that investigation is going on right now,' said Jones.
'It was a third-party vendor,' she added.
Ford, noting his own personal health data was once made public, stressed such records are 'sacred in Ontario.'
'Anyone who breaches health-care records needs to be fired, immediately, gone, be charged. That's what needs to happen here in Ontario,' he said.
Friday's announcement is part of the Tories' push to shorten wait times by approving additional privately owned clinics to provide cataract surgeries, scans and hip and knee replacements under the belief that the
status quo is not working.
The controversial transition to
more private clinics
has been in the works since the passage of the Your Health Act two years ago but kept on the down-low before the Feb. 27 provincial election that saw Ford win a third consecutive majority.
Critics have warned the move to more procedures in private clinics will bleed the public health system of doctors, nurses and other resources at a time when patients face record waits in emergency rooms and pave the way for corporations to profit instead of increasing government support for public hospitals where operating rooms sometimes sit empty.
There are also concerns that increased reliance on private clinics means that patients will be pressured into paying for extras not covered by OHIP — despite repeated assurances to the contrary from Ford and Jones.
For example, Ontario's auditor general warned in 2021 that cataract surgery patients — mostly seniors whose eye lenses blur as they age — are the most vulnerable to 'misleading sales practices' in some circumstances. Options include certain tests and upgraded lenses that can eliminate the need for eyeglasses.
Ontario now has more than 900 private clinics providing OHIP-covered medical services, as has been the case for decades under governments of all political stripes.
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