The government will pay for an additional 14,000 cataract surgeries annually, to be performed in existing eye-care centres, using existing staff. That would reduce the cataract surgery wait list by about 25 per cent.
The plan Ford announced will also pay for more MRI and CT scans as well as some gynecological and plastic surgeries. Hip and knee surgeries will be added starting next year. The more often routine surgeries are detached from hospitals, the better it will be for hospitals and for patients. Hospitals should be reserved for complex and immediate needs. Routine, low-risk surgeries are best provided in separate clinics, where the procedures won’t be cancelled because of more urgent surgeries.
Those who don’t run hospitals seem more concerned about the personnel implications of expanding clinics than do the people who are in charge of hospitals. The Ontario Health Coalition, a union-backed group, is worried that doctors and nurses will flee the public system for work in clinics. Maybe some will, but working regular Monday to Friday hours in a clinic instead of overnight and weekend shifts in a hospital will appeal to nurses who have quit the hospital system already.
Jones also said, “It’s time we put you back in charge of your health.” Quite so, but these changes won’t do that. All they provide is a modest shortening of the government queue for service.
True, however the scared sheep and unions would explode with fear and anger.
What Ontario needs is a premier who isn't a crook...