Private health care won’t reduce wait times — it may raise them, report says | 24CA News
A brand new report launched Thursday says that privatization of well being care in Ontario gained’t cut back wait occasions however may very well improve them.
That’s as a result of for-profit centres may as effectively face the staffing shortages which have plagued the general public sector, and any expertise that’s interested in the non-public mannequin will in flip cut back workers in public hospitals, in line with the report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
“Increasing surgical and diagnostic capacity depends on the availability of qualified staff, which is not magically increased by the addition of profit,” report writer and Simon Fraser University well being coverage researcher Andrew Longhurst stated in a press release Thursday.
“Expanded outsourcing is likely to worsen public hospital staffing shortages that cause longer waits.”
The issues of making extra for-profit well being care embrace greater prices, much less workers within the public system, in addition to upselling, self-referrals and pointless procedures, Longhurst stated.
University of Toronto well being coverage professor Raisa Deber instructed Global News that non-public well being care differs from many different providers as a result of it’s primarily based on want, so for-profit centres may overcharge or upsell providers that aren’t vital given the buyer’s lack of expertise however want for care.
“One of the problems that you run into is that market forces don’t work in health care,” she stated.
“People get very nervous when you start throwing for-profit into the mix because it gives absolutely the wrong incentives to the providers.”
She pointed to the pharmaceutical business for instance, the place medicine may be offered for greater prices to drive revenue and are nonetheless purchased by shoppers as a result of they’re wanted.
While privatization of some providers is being thought of in provinces like Ontario and others attributable to lengthy wait occasions and backlogs within the public system, the report famous that wait occasions in Ontario for “many priority procedures” are the shortest in Canada, resembling for hip and knee alternative in 2022.
In May, the Ontario authorities handed Bill 60, which inspires the expansion of for-profit well being look after some surgical procedures and imaging. Less than two per cent of surgical procedures in Ontario had been achieved in for-profit amenities in 2021-2022, CCPA stated.
Rather than flip to privatization, the report recommends efforts to enhance the general public system, “not undermine it.”
“Ontario does not lack the physical space and equipment to improve wait times for surgeries and medical imaging; what is missing is the health care workforce and funding necessary to do the work,” Longhurst stated.
The report recommends funding and staffing underused public hospital working rooms and performing surgical procedures through the night and weekends, in addition to rising hospital mattress capability.
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