Outside an independent eye care clinic in London, Ont., leaders within the London Health Coalition contend they are out to educate the public about any additional fees charged for OHIP-covered procedures. “And it doesn’t matter if it’s under a scalpel or a laser; if you’re just getting a cataract lens, it’s covered, folks,” said Co-Chair Peter Bergmanis. While the clinic targeted by the group has yet to respond to claims of any charges for cataract services outside of OHIP, Bergmanis tells CTV News that concerns about additional fees in private clinics across the province are part of a new report by the Ontario Health Coalition. The document also calls on the public to be aware of what it calls the underutilization of surgical rooms and MRI machines. It lists the operating hours of hospital resources, suggesting many facilities sit idle on weekends and evenings. Bergmanis claims that if hospitals’ MRIs and operating rooms were funded for more hours, the need for private clinics would be reduced or eliminated. “There would be no draining of the public purse of resources.” In 2023, the Ford government passed a bill allowing some private clinics to conduct OHIP-covered surgeries. At the time, the government maintained it was necessary to reduce the province’s surgical backlog. Three years on, the Health Coalition argues too much money is spent on private clinics at the expense of hospitals. Meanwhile, as the current tariff war continues with the United States, the coalition is contending that private US healthcare companies continue to find their way into the Ontario healthcare system. “If we go towards privatization, we lose that ability to protect our national Medicare, which is arguably the biggest thing that separates us from the US, for our identity,” said Jeff Hanks, a registered nurse and co-chair of the London chapter. While the province did not directly address private health care clinics in a statement sent to CTV News, a spokesperson for the minister of health said the “The Ontario Health Coalition’s claims are entirely misguided.” The statement went on to read in part: “Our government has increased funding for the hospital sector by a record 4% this year, for the third year in a row, bringing our total investment in hospitals to over 50% since 2018. This is in addition to the over $60 billion we are investing to get shovels in the ground for over 60 hospital development projects, that will add 3,000 new hospital beds across the province, the 50 new MRI and CT machines we have added in hospitals, including at London Health Sciences.”
