Despite the NDP suggesting dozens of amendments and changes, the Ontario Government has approved Bill 60, which will allow private clinics to do medical procedures and surgeries.
None of the NDP amendments was approved or included. The new bill was approved on May 8.
This has left NDP health care critic France Gélinas shaking her head in frustration, despite the government argument that Bill 60 is designed to speed-up health care by taking the pressure off surgical wait times.
Gélinas said this isn't about improving things with your local doctor or hospital.
"That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about multimillion dollar surgical suites that investors build. They build them for one reason, to make money," she said.
"They don't build them because they want to help you in your time of need, because they want to help your child or any of that. They build them for one reason; to make money. And that changes everything."
Another one of the concerns according to some health care unions is that private clinics that are allowed to perform OHIP-covered surgeries such as hip joints, knee joint and cataract eye surgery will eventually attract physicians and nurses from the public sector hospitals for a few extra dollars, regular day shifts and better working conditions.
Gélinas there is no need to provide new for-profit clinics in Ontario.
"We already have the infrastructure throughout Ontario — we don't need extra infrastructure, what we need is extra staff to work in those infrastructure. Like you can go to Health Sciences North right now, you will see there are brand new OR (Operating Room) suites that are built, and that have never been open to this day. They've never been open, because they haven't got the money to open them," Gélinas said in an interview with Sudbury.com
"We have an orthopedic surgeon right now, who would love to have more OR time so they can do more hips and knees so that the list would go down. But the hospital does not have the money to open up those or to staff them with OR nurses and technicians and lab techs and all of that.”
Sudbury.com asked HSN to verify Gélinas' statement regarding an unused operating suite going unused, but the hospital did not respond by press time to our request for clarity.
Gélinas also said there are concrete examples she has been made aware of where some clinics will upsell their services purely for profit.
"They always upsell. So you go in for a colonoscopy. They will say the colonoscopy is paid for by OHIP, but you need to talk to our dieticians first. Do you need the dietitian? No, but if you want to have your colonoscopy here, you need to talk to our dieticians first. And it will be $200 to have a consult with the dietician because dieticians are not covered by OHIP."
Gélinas said this suddenly becomes a barrier to care for anyone who needs a colonoscopy to learn whether they have colon cancer.
She said it forces the patient to make a choice by paying now or by waiting several days or weeks to get the colonoscopy done at the hospital.
"You pay 200 bucks, say hello to the dietitian and you get your free colonoscopy done," said Gélinas.
She said similar situations happen in Ontario a lot, but she said most people do not complain. Gélinas said Ontario’s auditor general is investigating more than 200 situations where patients paid extra fees when they should not have paid.
She said when it comes to getting health care for somebody you care about, such as a child or a parent, most people will feel pressured to do whatever it takes to get immediate care regardless of the cost. Gélinas said she is worried that some for-profit health clinics will take advantage of that.
Len Gillis covers health care and mining for Sudbury.com.
