JMSO

Article content material

In a letter to civil servants on Jan. 7, 2019, Premier Doug Ford promised to reform Ontario well being care at a “lightning tempo.” The pandemic interrupted his plans, however we are actually seeing what he meant. 

Article content material

As he strikes relentlessly to denationalise well being care within the province, he takes nice pains to say, “Ontarians will at all times pay for well being care with their OHIP card, by no means with their bank card.”  

However in case you catch your self believing this promise, you need to bear in mind these two phrases – Doug Ford. This is identical man who promised by no means to the touch the Inexperienced Belt close to Toronto whereas parcelling out the choicest items to his developer cronies and pushed ahead with plans to construct the contentious Freeway 413. 

Now we have already seen the early outcomes of his health-care initiatives. 

In early March, reviews surfaced in varied respected information sources just like the Toronto Star and the CBC relating to the actions of a gaggle referred to as the Tutorial Orthopedic Surgical Associates of Ottawa inc. (AOAO). On a Saturday in late February, this personal group of 26 orthopedic surgeons leased two working rooms within the Riverside Campus of the Ottawa Hospital and carried out 10 orthopedic procedures. 

Article content material

Article content material

Regardless of the investigations of stories organizations and questions by opposition politicians, the main points of the procedures stay secret. Ominously, nobody is aware of what the AOAO paid to be used of the general public amenities or how the sufferers had been chosen. Nevertheless, it’s recognized that the nurses who staffed the operations had been ones who work regionally within the public system and had been paid twice what they usually obtain for his or her companies. So, a justifiable concern exists that if these procedures persist, nurses will probably be poached from the general public system. 

Unknown to many, due to funding and staffing shortages, there are numerous vacant working amenities in hospitals throughout Ontario. So, it doesn’t take a lot creativeness to see this tendency spreading quickly throughout the province. 

Article content material

As well as, with the need of paying for amenities, buying gear, hiring employees at a a lot greater charge than regular, plus the revenue motive which little doubt creates organizations just like the AOAO, it’s fully potential that sticking to the promise of paying with an OHIP card will change into more and more harder. 

How lengthy will it’s till the difficulty of upselling, which is so widespread in some areas of well being care now, and surgical appointments based mostly on capability to pay turns into the norm. And the way assured can anybody be that individuals like those that populate the Ford authorities will probably be there to police these practices? 

With the provincial Liberal Celebration in disarray and presently leaderless and the NDP, with its new chief Marit Stiles struggling to get organized, by no means has it been extra vital for the voters of Ontario to change into vigilant and take motion. 

The very way forward for public well being care in Ontario is at stake. 

Dennis Makowetsky, 

Chatham