Ontario legislation unveiled Tuesday would allow expansion of for-profit surgical centres to do more publicly funded outpatient procedures such as cataract eye surgeries, and hip and knee replacements
, is designed to allow the expansion of private, for-profit surgical centres that will do more publicly funded outpatient procedures such as cataract eye surgeries, and starting next year, hip and knee replacements.
Caitlin Clark, a spokesperson for the Premier, said Tuesday that, if passed, the legislation will put into law that people “will always [have] access to insured services at community surgical and diagnostic centres with their OHIP [Ontario Health Insurance Plan] card and never their credit card, consistent with the Canada Health Act.”funding deal with the provinces and territories, has previously labelled Ontario’s private-clinic plan, which was announced in January, as “innovation.
“When we took office in 2018, the health care system was an absolute disaster, there was hallway health care, it was just a total, total mess,” the Premier said in Question Period at Queen’s Park. “As we’re building the health care system, the opposition is blocking it every step of the way. They have no solution, Mr. Speaker, for the 203,000 backlogged surgeries. We have a solution.”
Mr. Ford countered that Ontario has added 60,000 nurses and 8,000 doctors under his leadership, arguing that the draft legislation would help take the burden off the backs of hospitals by moving more surgeries to other settings. Liberal MPP and health critic Adil Shamji, a former emergency room physician, said the draft legislation has no details on how its proposed prohibitions against charging patients extra fees would be enforced. A recent report from the province’s Auditor-General that declared the practice, along with “upselling,” a widespread problem in existing private clinics that do eye surgery and other procedures.
John Yip, the chief executive officer of SE Health, a non-profit that provides home-care services for seniors, said his organization is interested in setting up non-profit surgical centres under the new system. But he said the legislation leaves many details of how the new clinics will operate and be governed to be worked out.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Doug Ford 'ghosted' people of Ottawa during Freedom Convoy, NDP allegesPremier Doug Ford refused to answer questions in the legislature about a damning report outlining “Ontario’s absence” during the Freedom Convoy as the NDP accused him of “ghosting” the people of Ottawa.
Read more »
Doug Ford 'ghosted' people of Ottawa during Freedom Convoy, NDP allegesPremier Doug Ford refused to answer questions in the legislature about a damning report outlining “Ontario’s absence” during the Freedom Convoy as the NDP accused him of “ghosting” the people of Ottawa.
Read more »
Ottawa should fight Doug Ford’s Greenbelt plan, Liberal MPs in the GTA argueSome Liberal MPs in the GTA and beyond want the federal government to seize a chance to intervene in Ontario’s controversial plans to open parts of the Greenbelt to housing development.
Read more »
Premier Doug Ford 'dead against' federal ZEV sales mandateOttawa’s proposed zero-emission vehicle mandate threatens to eliminate all the positive momentum the federal government has built up on the automotive file over the past several years in “one clean swoop,” according to Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
Read more »
Doug Ford faces sharp questions about relationships with developers as legislature resumesMarit Stiles asks Ford multiple questions about the event, including whether any government staff had a role in sending out the invitations
Read more »