Ontario awards licences for publicly funded, privately operated diagnostic centres
The Ford government has announced that 57 new privately operated surgical and diagnostic centres will be brought online and integrated into the public health system as it tries to reduce wait times.
On Friday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford unveiled the first new privately operated facility to be given an operating licence — a new building in Richmond Hill, Ont., which will be run as a non-profit.
As part of the creation of 57 new privately run facilities — referred to by the government as community surgical and diagnostic centres — Ontario will chip in a total $155 million over two years.
'The 57 new centres we are rolling out across Ontario will make a huge difference for people in the province, helping them get the care they need, when they need it,' Ford said in a statement.
Story continues below advertisement
'It's all part of our plan to protect and improve our health-care services, all while ensuring people always receive the care they need with their OHIP card.'
Get weekly health news
Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday. Sign up for weekly health newsletter Sign Up
By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy
Thirty-five of the centres have been licensed to offer MRI and CT scans, while another 22 will deal with GI endoscopy procedures.
Ontario NDP MPP France Gélinas said the announcement was a step in the wrong direction.
'That is public money going into private hands instead of our local hospitals, where help is desperately needed,'
'This model of private delivery with public dollars is alarming and unfair. Study after study shows that private clinics benefit the wealthiest, while leaving the rest of us behind.
That is public money going into private hands instead of our local hospitals, where help is desperately needed. All of this has been made possible through Bill 60.
'This model of private delivery with public dollars is alarming and unfair. Study after study shows that private clinics benefit the wealthiest, while leaving the rest of us behind.
Ford made Friday's announcement at the Schroeder Ambulatory Centre in Richmond Hill, which received the first such licence to operate a new centre. It will get $14 million from the province and provide MRIs, CT scans and endoscopy procedures to 115,000 patients over two years.
Story continues below advertisement
The Walter and Maria Schroeder Foundation committed $300 million for the new centre.
Health Minister Sylvia Jones said no special favours were given to the new ambulatory centre, which was built without assurance it would be granted a licence if it applied.
The new centres will help alleviate the strain on public hospitals, the provincial government said. The premier said that 'hospitals are at full capacity, but this will relieve them.'
Announcing the licences marks a major checkpoint on a plan the government announced in 2023 to expand the role of privately delivered, publicly funded operators in the health-care system.
The plan — titled Your Health — was announced at the beginning of 2023, with legislation to support it passed during the spring. In the year that has followed, the government has been working through details of how it will manage oversight of new private clinics.
— with files from The Canadian Press
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Global News
an hour ago
- Global News
First-of-its kind urban flower farm in Montreal fuelled by sibling love
Montreal's first cut flower green care farm is not only growing beautiful blooms, it's also blossoming bonds between people with and without intellectual disabilities. The new project was born out of the love between a former medical ethicist and her neurodivergent big brother. 'We feel really, really good about it,' said Posy Flower Farm founder Lucy Wade, standing next to her older brother Harris. 'I think for me, it's a bit like coming home.' Wade created Posy Flower Farm in Montreal this spring on a small plot of land at the Verdun borough's municipal greenhouse. Where the flowers are now growing, dahlias, cosmos and zinnias among them, not long ago, there was just grass and weeds on the 'unloved' tract. 'It was a huge job. It just took a little elbow grease, eh Harris?' she said to her brother. Story continues below advertisement Harris lives with an intellectual disability. He works regular shifts at the flower farm, along with new employee, Ellis, who is also is also neurodivergent. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy She's hoping the green care farm becomes a place where neurotypical people can not only shop for flowers, but also gain a better understanding of the realities of people living with intellectual disabilities. 'The idea is that if we can put people in the community who don't have disabilities in contact with something beautiful, where they can also see people with disabilities doing something they value and contributing in a very real way to the functioning of this business,' Wade explained. Green care farming is when people with medical conditions, including intellectual disabilities, get major benefits from working outdoors, surrounded by people. When people with disabilities age out of school, society offers little support for them or their loved ones. 'They end up kind of retreating away from society and being more at home,' she said. Wade decided to leave her career as a medical ethicist at the Jewish General Hospital to create an environment where her brother and others with disabilities could thrive. Before being an ethicist, she studied sperm whales in the Maritimes as a marine biologist. 'I do mulch. I do watering, and we sell a bunch of flowers,' Harris said. Story continues below advertisement Wade said she felt in her work life, she had to 'compartmentalize' a major part of herself: being the sister of a brother with a disability. She wanted to bring both sides of her to the forefront at the flower farm. 'I think this is something that a lot of siblings of people with disabilities will understand,' she said. 'You have your family life and the life where inclusion of people with disabilities is completely natural and normal. And then you have your other life where people don't understand that. And you pick and choose who you share that with.' For the full story, watch the video above.
Global News
an hour ago
- Global News
New Brunswick shelters see increased demand during warm summer months
Some New Brunswick homeless shelters are reporting their busiest summer yet, at a time when many unhoused people ordinarily choose to stay outside in the warmer weather. In Fredericton, a building at the exhibition grounds that was only meant to be an out-of-the-cold shelter until mid-April is instead staying open for the foreseeable future. 'Normally people sort of go out into the world, and spend their summers in tents or out and about or wherever they can be without rules and live their life and that's their choice to do so,' said Warren Maddox, the executive director of Fredericton Homeless Shelters. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy 'What we found this year is that our usage is way up.' For Maddox, increasing drug toxicity is playing a big role in the summer increase. 'The people are scared. They don't have a place to go where they can be safe at night,' he said. Story continues below advertisement In Saint John, Ben Appleby with the Outflow Ministry is also reporting a record number of people accessing their shelter. 'We've seen basically double since (20)22-23 in individuals experiencing homelessness for at least one day in a year,' said Appleby. The shift is seen provincewide, according to numbers provided by New Brunswick's social development department, which shows 60 per cent of out-of-the-cold beds in the province have stayed available for the summer. 'We saw this coming, to be honest; that's why we were really being proactive… really looking at how can we look at increasing capacity in shelters as a response to what's coming,' said Social Development Minister Cindy Miles. She says the issue is complex, meaning every community will need different supports. For more on this story, watch the video above.
Global News
13 hours ago
- Global News
Quebec helicopter crash: Air ambulance company pays homage to victims
The company that operated an air ambulance that crashed on Quebec's North Shore on June 20 is honouring the four victims who perished. Airmedic says three of its crew members died as heroes, along with an American patient. View image in full screen Sébastien Groulx, Airmedic/Facebook Four crew members and the patient were aboard the Airmedic helicopter when it went down in a remote area north of Natashquan, about 1,000 kilometres northeast of Montreal. Story continues below advertisement The company described the patient as a quiet woman, entirely devoted to her family. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy One crew member survived, the body of another person was found on Monday, and the other three victims' bodies were recovered by provincial police on Wednesday. View image in full screen Sébastien De Lutio, Airmedic/Facebook The Quebec coroner's office says the victims are Sébastien De Lutio, 50, from Lac-Beauport; Olivier Blouin, 25, from Pont-Rouge; Sébastien Groulx, 50, from Longueuil; and patient Claire Tripp, 78, from the U.S. state of Maine. On its website, Airmedic says its employees were faithful to their mission until the very last moment, and saluted their dedication, courage, and humanity.
