The Ontario Health Coalition is warning about the long-term consequences of health-care privatization, pointing to new research from overseas that it says mirrors decisions being made in Ontario today.
In reports released by Professor Allyson M. Pollock of Newcastle University, the research outlines how two decades of privatization in England — including shifting funding from the National Health Service (NHS) to private providers for surgeries such as knee, hip and cataract procedures — has led to reduced in-house capacity, longer wait times, and widening health inequalities. The findings note poorer and less healthy patients are waiting longer for care as a two-tier system emerges.
By contrast, Scotland expanded its NHS capacity without relying on private clinics and has not seen inequalities grow to the same extent.
Ontario Health Coalition executive director Natalie Mehra says those trends offer a cautionary example, adding Ontario is “about a decade behind” England but began down a similar path.
Pollock’s research also shows wealthier, healthier patients in England not only wait less for NHS-funded care but are more likely to be readmitted to public hospitals — displacing lower-income patients from the queue. Mehra says early signs of similar inequities are already appearing in Ontario.
While private-sector patients in England experience shorter waits individually, the introduction of private providers has been linked to longer overall wait times across the system. Scotland’s increases, meanwhile, stemmed from austerity measures and funding freezes beginning in 2008–09.
Mehra says Ontario private clinics can charge a 20 per cent premium for procedures such as cataract surgery — the same surgery that public hospitals can perform. She argues investments should prioritize the public system to move patients through care faster.
(Written by: Noah Lorusso)
