Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance CEO Questions Value of Private Healthcare

by Bob Montgomery

A CBC Toronto investigation recently found that the province was paying a private clinic considerably more than what is being paid to public hospitals for the same OHIP-covered surgeries.

HPHA CEO Andrew Williams says he can't comment on how much is being paid to private clinics but he says the Alliance is on record as saying the best way to address the surgical backlog, in their view, is to utilize the physical capacity that's currently available within the hospital setting. Williams says they are very concerned about the potential loss of staff if there is a parallel system. He says they completely support the government looking for ways to improve access to care because there is room for improvement there. He believes there's an opportunity within the existing public system to better use the capacities they have. Williams also says they're on record as saying that the funding and the approach to funding would certainly have to be very different in a private environment.

Williams points out they have a finite number of people and certain expectations and accountabilities that hospitals have to be available 24 hours a day for surgical services and if they start to see more of the staff, whether it's nurses, physicians or surgeons or others going into these private environments and then not being available for public hospitals, that would be a concern. He says they haven't seen the details about how private clinics would be operated, but they have been very clear in their view that they should be directly linked to public hospitals because there needs to be an accountability of working in those hospitals as well. They have to be accredited through an appropriate body. So there's a number of checks and balances to try and mitigate any potential unintended consequences on the existing hospital system.

Williams says none of the hospitals are comfortable with the wait times they currently have in certain areas, they all know some things have to be done differently. They also feel there's an opportunity to better utilize the capacity that they do have, particularly if there is a willingness to invest new dollars into the system to allow them to do more surgeries.