Fund public solutions to our healthcare crisis

4,819 actions

goal: 7,000

There is no question that our healthcare system is at a critical point. The devastating effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with years of underfunding, have only exacerbated issues that we’re experiencing today - including long -surgery wait times.¹

We know that relying on private clinics is a dangerous move that will pave the way for a two-tiered public healthcare system – and is setting a concerning precedent across the country. But we also know there are public solutions to the current crisis: extending the hours of public operating rooms, investing in healthcare worker retention and centralizing waitlists.²

Send Premier Ford and Healthcare Minister Jones a message: implement real public solutions instead of investing in private, for-profit clinics

Send a message to Premier Ford and Health Minister Jones

Subject

Premier Ford and Healthcare Minister Sylvia Jones:

I am calling on you to implement public solutions to Ontario’s healthcare crisis, including addressing surgery wait times, instead of wasting public money on outsourcing to private, for-profit clinics.

A recent CCPA report, “At What Cost? Ontario hospital privatization and the threat to public health care” showed that outsourcing to private clinics worsens wait-times and exacerbates staffing shortages. We echo concerns of healthcare unions: for-profit clinics draw staff away from public hospitals and maximize profit by focusing their business on patients with the least complex medical needs, leaving public hospitals to care for patients with higher needs and expensive-to-treat conditions.

I urge your government to: 		
				
- Create centralized waitlists (also known as single-entry models) to streamline waitlists province wide.

- Maximize and extend hospital operating room capacity: An estimated 34 per cent of hospitals had unused OR capacity in 2019-20, and OR hours can be extended into evenings and weekends.

- Protect patients from extra-billing, prohibit upselling, and require physician disclosure of financial conflicts of interest.
					
- Increase medical and surgical hospital bed capacity and access to seniors’ home and community care, which can reduce hospital bed shortages, cancellations of scheduled surgeries and, ultimately, surgical wait times for all patients.

- Reduce the overuse of clinically inappropriate medical imaging and surgeries.

- Publicly disclose how much public money is being spent on private, for-profit clinics, including making funding agreements public

- Adopt a “vaccines-plus” public health strategy to reduce health system strain and delayed surgical care. This includes ongoing measures to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2 to reduce pressure on the medical system.

We know there are public solutions to our healthcare crisis.  I urge you to act on these recommendations immediately and stop funding private, for-profit clinics.

Signed,

Send to

Doug Ford, Sylvia Jones

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Fund public solutions to our healthcare crisis

Send a message to Premier Ford and Health Minister Jones

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