OCHU says private clinics don't work in the UK and they won't work here

A former Health Minister from the United Kingdom was in North Bay today (Tuesday).

Frank Dobson is touring the province to talk about the UK’s “dismal experience” with private clinics. He says the way Canada’s health system is setup right now is working, and privatizing it won’t help anyone.

He says “the Canadian system is very cost-effect and so for the private sector to come along and say ‘”we can do it cheaper and we can do it better'” is just rubbish. There’s no evidence of that anywhere in the world.”

Dobson says the public health service doesn’t have to find a profit for shareholders which are the main concern of the private sector. He says data in the UK shows nearly 6,000 patients every year are transferred to public hospitals following operations gone wrong at private clinics.

Kevin Cook is the Regional Vice-President of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions and he says governments need to continue to fund hospitals and not private clinics.

He says “more and more clinics are popping up, the government is not funding hospitals, so the hospitals are looking at outsourcing more and more clinics. We want to get the message out there because a lot of the public is not aware, and there are a lot of hidden costs with these clinics.“