Ontario seeks more private MRI, CT clinics for public scans

Ontario is looking to nearly double the number of publicly funded MRIs and CT scans offered through private clinics.

Right now there are seven such clinics in the province that provide one or both of the diagnostic imaging services, and Health Minister Sylvia Jones announced Monday that Ontario has launched a call for applications to expand that number.

New licences are expected to be issued in the fall and should give the province the ability to perform 100,000 more of those scans each year.

"When it comes to wait times for surgeries and procedures, the status quo is not acceptable," Jones wrote in a news release.

"Increasing the number of MRI and CT scans being done each year is the next step we're taking to reduce wait times for more publicly funded surgeries and procedures, ensuring people get the care they need, when they need it."

More than two million people in the province received MRIs and CT scans last year excluding emergency cases, said a spokesperson for Jones, and nearly 150,000 of those were performed in private clinics.

The government says the expansion of services will help reduce wait times for the scans to 28 days in every region of the province the Ontario average is currently 90 days for MRIs and 81 days for CT scans.

This comes as part of the government's plan to expand the number of facilities offering services such as cataract surgeries and certain orthopedic surgeries, among others. Two more calls for applications will be launched this summer and fall, for GI endoscopies and orthopedic surgeries.

Move comes with concerns from opposition leaders

Some critics and health advocates have expressed concerns that increasing the role of private delivery is a stepping stone to privatization and having to pay for more services out of pocket, though the government says that will not happen.

NDP Leader Marit Stiles said that even when the government says the specific procedures will be covered by OHIP, she is concerned the private clinics will pressure patients into paying out of pocket for add-ons such as an upgraded lens in a cataract surgery.

"[The question is]what are they going to ask people, tell people, that they need to pay for to get to the front of the line or to get a little extra?" she said. "I mean, we see this all the time."

Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie said the clinic expansion furthers the Progressive Conservative government's "privatization agenda."

"People will be going into these clinics with their credit card, not their health card," she said. "Just one more step in the privatization of our health-care system."