Heather Wright/The Independent

Andrew Longhurst says Ontario’s plan to reduce wait times by allowing private clinics to provide 12 different procedures is not working.

The researcher for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives did an analysis of the 918 licenced private centres and found the province paid out over $4.1 billion in eight years for the service while wait times in at least eight of the 12 specialities hasn’t improved or got worse.

“It’s really important, now that we’re a number of years into this policy direction, that the government recognize that this direction is not working, “ said Longhurst, who did the study in conjunction with the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

“Based on the experience in other provinces and other jurisdictions, acknowledging that the research evidence does not show that this movement of public resources into the for-profit system is going to reduce wait times over the long run.”

He adds “in those areas where there has been a greater focus on privatization of MRIs, cataract surgeries, those two areas in particular, wait times have increased rather than decrease as the government had suggested initially.”

That’s happening as existing equipment in government funded hospitals lies idle.

Longhurst points out Bluewater Health’s MRI closes overnight on weekdays at a 4 pm on weekends with some on-call emergency coverage. Longhurst says the MRI machines are “very capable” of running 24/7, and that happens in areas where there is a commitment to reduce wait times.

“We have unstaffed, unfunded existing capacity in with MRI machines, with public operating rooms, and this is really what the research I think sheds light on in terms of where those public dollars are going. It’s favouring those private for-profit facilities when we have a public resource, public infrastructure, that has already been paid for, and yet we’re not using it to its fullest extent.

“This is the policy direction that’s being favoured by Queens Park, and we’re not seeing wait times improve. We’re actually seeing the opposite. So it really flies in the face of the evidence.”