What you need to know about Ontario's investment in private healthcare

Ontario Premier Doug Ford released a new three-step plan to reduce surgery wait times on Monday.

The plan invests in community surgical and diagnostic centres, giving them the ability to conduct more procedures.

Here’s everything we know and don’t know:

Why is this plan necessary?

Officials say there are about 206,000 people waiting for surgical procedures in Ontario. The government says this plan will free up doctors and physicians at hospitals to deal with more complicated, high-risk surgeries, as well as increase capacity.

What is a community surgical centre?

The government is using the term “community surgical and diagnostic centre” as a broad descriptor for all for-profit and not-for-profit clinics operated outside of a physical hospital.

Will these services be covered under OHIP?

Yes. The province has guaranteed that taxpayers will not be billed additional expenses for having a surgery at a for-profit community clinic.

What is the first step?

The province will establish “new partnerships” in Windsor, Kitchener-Waterloo and Ottawa that will allow 14,000 additional cataract surgeries to take place each year. The province says this represents up to 25 per cent of the province’s current cataract wait list.

Officials say they will also be investing more than $18 million in existing clinics to cover MRI and CT scans, cataract surgeries, ophthalmic surgeries, minimally invasive gynecological surgeries and plastic surgeries.

The new partnerships are expected to roll out beginning March 2023. The government says it hopes to clear the pandemic-related backlog in this step of the plan.

What is the second step?

Ontario will expand “the scope of surgical and diagnostic centres,” including allowing colonoscopy and endoscopy procedures. This should happen sometime this year.

Little detail has been provided regarding what additional procedures may be included. However, officials have said this step of the plan could begin as early as April.

What is the third step?

This step involves multiple pieces of legislation that will allow these clinics to conduct more MRI and CT scanning, as well as hip and knee replacements.

There will be legislation that would “strengthen oversight” at these clinics, although no information has been provided about what this could entail.

How much is this going to cost?

It’s still a bit unclear. The government has said it is investing $300 million in 2022-23 as part of its “surgical recovery strategy,” as well as the $18 million to cover further surgeries.

What are the concerns?

Health-care unions, as well as other experts, have argued that investments into private clinics could result in further strain on the public health-care system. They argue that nurses and other health-care staff may leave the public sector for a clinic with more favourable hours or better pay, leaving hospitals understaffed.

There is also concerns about upselling, in which a physician offers a patient options between services covered under OHIP and those that are not publicly funded, potentially causing confusion and unexpected expenses.

At the same time, hospital CEOs say the use of community clinics will help reduce surgical backlogs and have become an essential tool to alleviate demand on other facilities.

Is this program temporary?

The premier has said the program will become permanent once legislation is passed.