LILLEY: If private clinics are allowed inside public system for abortion, why not other surgical procedures?

Normally when a health minister is asked about funding for private clinics, the question is loaded with claims of privatizing Ontario’s health system. On Thursday, Health Minister Sylvia Jones was asked whether her government would offer private clinics extra funding to let them stay open.

There was no hysteria, no outrage, in fact it was a bit of a plea to fund these clinics. The difference is that these clinics provide abortion.

While not often talked about, many of the clinics that perform abortions are private, and yet are fully covered by OHIP.

“Our clinic is owned and run by female physicians who care about women and want to provide services in a safe and respectful environment,” reads the statement on the website of one Toronto area clinic.

In Ottawa, the closest medical facility to Parliament Hill is a private abortion clinic that has been operating for decades. There is no outcry over this. The clinics provide a service covered by OHIP and performed by a doctor and our health system remains intact.

Why then the fear, the panic, the screams of privatization when it is suggested that we allow other surgical procedures to be performed in doctor owned clinics?

The Ford government has said that they want to use IHFs or independent health facilities to clear Ontario’s surgical backlog post-pandemic. Like the abortion clinics, which are IHFs, some are private, others are not-for-profit, but the idea remains the same, doctors perform the surgery, the patient simply presents their OHIP card for payment.

Given the backlog, millions of surgeries waiting to be performed according to the Ontario Medical Association, this shouldn’t be controversial. Yet, each time it is raised, the cries go out about privatizing the system.

If the NDP and Liberals are fine with this system when it comes to abortion, why not allow it for hips, knees, cataracts, hernia, tonsils and other operations?

Polling shows that most Ontario residents don’t care who provides their health care services if they pay with their OHIP card, not their credit card. That should be enough for the Ford government to move forward with an all hands on deck approach to clearing the backlog but so far, they haven’t moved on this file.

I’ve spoken to doctors and medical directors who operate existing private clinics. None of them are looking to get rich off the system or take over the bulk of the work done by hospitals, but they do say they can and should be part of the solution.

Operating rooms in the province generally run between 8am and 3:30pm and those inside the system have stated clearly that there is no desire to change that. This means that even with the backlog, operating rooms are sitting idle for two thirds of the day.

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IHFs, be they private or not-for-profit, have the ability to offer services into the evening hours, something hospitals and their strict union agreements aren’t doing at the moment.

One private operator said they would be able to easily take on an additional workload of about 20% at their small clinic. They also said they could start performing simple surgeries within a matter of weeks with more complex ones taking a few months to get ready for.

If you’re sitting on a waiting list, do you care who owns the location where you will get your surgery? For most Ontarians, the answer is no.

Private abortion clinics have operated inside the public system for decades. We can and should do the same for other services.