Ontario’s hospital privatization plan ‘not adding up’ as public funding on for-profit clinics balloons, local hospital capacity is under utilized and wait-times increase: new CCPA Report

Ontario’s hospital privatization plan ‘not adding up’ as public funding on for-profit clinics balloons, local hospital capacity is under utilized and wait-times increase: new CCPA Report

Windsor, ON – Ontario’s funding of for-profit medical imaging (MRI) and surgical services is increasing wait times and threatening public health care, says a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).

In Not adding up: Surgical and diagnostic privatization in Ontario, CCPA Senior Researcher Andrew Longhurst analyses unpublished data – obtained through Freedom of Information requests – from Ontario’s 918 licensed private centres and two private hospitals offering publicly funded health services and finds that this privatization does not serve the public interest.

The report will be released at a press conference in Windsor on Wednesday morning.

Longhurst will be joined by Michael Hurley, president of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU-CUPE), to speak about the research findings and the unused capacity at the Windsor Regional Hospital that can be used to reduce surgical and diagnostic wait-times.

When: 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, September 30
Where: Optimist Community Centre, 1075 Ypres Avenue, Windsor, ON
What: Media conference to release findings of new CCPA research report about privatization of hospital surgeries and diagnostic tests
Who:  Andrew Longhurst, Senior Researcher, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Michael Hurley, President, Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU/CUPE)

For more information please contact:
Zee Noorsumar,
CUPE Communications znoorsumar@cupe.ca
647-995-9859