\u201cEngland has traveled further down the path toward privatization, and its experience should be a warning to the Ford government, which is now diverting more than a hundred million dollars a year to private clinics rather than funding our public hospitals,\u201d Mehra says.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike in England, Ontario is paying a higher price for cataract surgeries in private clinics. Like England, we are seeing increasing inequities in access to care.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mehra says that private clinics normally only serve patients who are otherwise healthy.<\/p>\n
As an example, she cites a Toronto-area clinic that only\u00a0treats hernias, but normally won\u2019t operate on someone who is obese or has other underlying health issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ll only deal with ambulatory patients,\u201d she says, referring to those who can get to the clinic under their own steam.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost hospitals now have closed operating rooms. They\u2019re losing staff. Money flows toward easier procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"20251117_115312\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/20251117_115312.jpg;w=960.jpeg\"\/)
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Concerns over continued privatization of healthcare in Ontario were highlighted by local residents during meeting at the Midland Public Library. Andrew Philips\/MidlandToday<\/p>\n
Hurley and Mehra say the U.K.\u00a0research offers important lessons for Ontario, where the current government has been expanding privatization of cataract, hips\u00a0and knee surgeries through private, for-profit clinics.<\/p>\n
By 2024, 59 per cent of cataract surgeries were being delivered privately in England, up from 15 per cent in 2019. The report says this expansion came at a steep cost to the public purse as expenditures increased dramatically.<\/p>\n
Between 2018\/19 and 2022\/23, the number of cataract surgeries across England increased by 25 per cent while annual expenditure went up by 95 per cent to \u00a3522 million (close to $1 billion Canadian).<\/p>\n
\u201cThe private sector takes away precious resources from the public system,\u201d Pollock says. \u201cIn addition to the significant amount of money diverted to private owners, public hospitals lose doctors and other staff who are required to manage and monitor more complicated eye care.\u201d<\/p>\n
Private clinics catering to wealthier clientele in Ontario<\/p>\n
The OHC notes that as funding is diverted from Ontario\u2019s public hospitals to private clinics (predominantly for-profit), the most affluent people benefit at the expense of the majority of people.<\/p>\n
According to Hurley, there\u2019s also an evident divide in access to care since virtually all private clinics in Ontario are located in the wealthiest neighbourhoods of large urban centres where there is a sizable market of wealthier people who can afford to pay extra user fees.<\/p>\n
That means rural areas and small towns like Midland don\u2019t typically have private clinics, he notes.<\/p>\n