Most people in Waterloo Region face reduced access to privatized hospital services: new report

Polling shows 72 per cent of people in Western Ontario say it’s unacceptable
for private clinics to charge patients

KITCHENER, ON –(COMMUNITYWIRE)– The privatization of hospital services in Ontario is negatively impacting the vast majority of Waterloo residents, as people with affluence gain increased access to private clinics at the expense of everyone else, says a new report released by CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU-CUPE).

The OCHU-CUPE report highlights the findings of a 2024 Canadian Medical Association Journal study showing that privatization of cataract operations resulted in surgical rates increasing by 22 per cent for the wealthiest Ontarians while declining for everyone else. Access to surgeries for the poorest people in Ontario declined nine per cent. The study noted that hospitals provided equal access to care.

The CUPE report comes a month after the Ontario government allocated $280 million to private, for-profit clinics in its recent budget. On the other hand, the budget increased funding for health care by two per cent, well below the 5.2 per cent annual health care inflation.

The union also commissioned a survey polling Ontarians about privatization. The Nanos Poll was conducted between May 27 and June 1, surveying 1,017 Ontarians over the age of 18.

The survey found that 78 per cent of people in Western Ontario think the government should prioritize spending on public hospitals rather than private clinics, with 85 per cent believing that public hospitals are understaffed.

“This poll shows there is overwhelming opposition to this government’s plans to privatize hospital surgeries,” said Michael Hurley, president of OCHU-CUPE, which represents 50,000 hospital and long-term care staff. “The public understands that spending on private, for-profit clinics and agencies is much more expensive, comes with poorer outcomes and duplicates infrastructure and administration. The vast majority wants our resources allocated to public health care.”

After significant privatization of cataract surgeries, the government plans to expand private, for-profit delivery of other procedures including knee and hip replacements as well as diagnostics. In 2023, Premier Doug Ford suggested that up to 50 per cent of surgeries could be performed outside of hospitals.

The Ontario Health Coalition has documented hundreds of cases of private, for-profit clinics billing patients for medically necessary services – which is illegal – and add-on services that patients felt compelled to purchase.

In Western Ontario, 72 per cent of people polled by Nanos said it was unacceptable for private clinics to charge patients for medically necessary services.

The union expressed concerns about the acceleration of privatization, citing the CMAJ study’s findings showing that since expansion of public funding for cataract surgeries in Ontario, 22.5 per cent of these procedures were performed in private clinics.

“People can’t afford to pay thousands of dollars for health care,” Hurley said. “The great majority of Ontarians reject this expensive privatization that bakes in inequalities and greatly reduces access.”

Summary of Nanos poll of Western Ontario residents:

• 72% say it’s unacceptable for private clinics to charge patients for medically necessary services
• 78% say government must prioritize spending on public health care, not private clinics
• 85% say there’s not enough staff in public hospitals
• 67% agree with the CMAJ study results that privatization will negatively impact access to care for the poorest people

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For more information, please contact:

Zee Noorsumar, CUPE Communications
znoorsumar@cupe.ca
647-995-9859