Standing in the waiting room of Sault Area Hospital, I can’t help but notice Elaine, a 67-year-old retired schoolteacher, checking her watch for the third time in 20 minutes. She’s been waiting over two hours for her echocardiogram, a test her doctor ordered three months ago.
“It wasn’t always this way,” she tells me, her voice low but firm. “Five years ago, I was in and out in an hour for the same test. Now they’re short-staffed, overbooked, and I hear they’re sending people to private clinics if they can pay.”
Elaine’s experience mirrors a troubling pattern emerging across Ontario’s healthcare landscape, highlighted in a damning new report from the Ontario Health Coalition released last week. The report details how public healthcare dollars are being systematically diverted to private, for-profit clinics while public hospitals and health facilities struggle with understaffing and growing wait times.
The Coalition’s findings reveal that since 2022, the provincial government has quietly transferred more than $875 million originally earmarked for public healthcare infrastructure to private clinics performing surgeries, diagnostic imaging, and other medical procedures. This reallocation happens despite public assurances that healthcare funding was being increased, not redistributed.
“It’s a shell game,” explains Dr. Ritika Goel, a family physician with the University Health Network in Toronto. “The funding announcements sound impressive, but they’re taking from one public pocket to fill a private one. Meanwhile, nurses are leaving the public system in droves, often hired by these very same private clinics at higher wages.”
The diversion of funds impacts northern communities like Sault Ste. Marie particularly hard. Without the population density to attract private clinics, these communities see their healthcare dollars leave town while receiving none of the promised benefits of “innovation” and “efficiency” that proponents of privatization tout.
At Coffee’s On, a popular local café near the hospital, I meet with Sarah Neamsby, a registered nurse who recently left her position at the Sault Area Hospital after eight years.
“I was working double shifts constantly,” Sarah explains, stirring her coffee absently. “We lost three nurses to a private surgical center in Sudbury. They offered them 30% more and regular hours. How can our public system compete when the government is feeding the very entities poaching our staff?”
The Ontario Nurses Association estimates that over 2,300 nurses have transferred from public institutions to private clinics since 2022. Meanwhile, data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information shows hospital wait times for non-urgent procedures in Northern Ontario have increased by 37% during the same period.
The private clinic expansion stems from the Ford government’s 2022 healthcare reform package, which positioned private clinics as a solution to post-pandemic surgical backlogs. Initially framed as a temporary measure, these arrangements have become increasingly permanent, with five-year contracts now commonplace.
For patients like Dan Masterson, a 54-year-old carpenter from Garden River First Nation, the public-private divide creates a troubling new reality.
“My doctor told me I need knee surgery, but the wait at the hospital is 14 months,” he tells me at a community health fair. “Then he mentions there’s a private clinic in Toronto where I could get it done in six weeks if I have $4,500 for the ‘facility fee’ – even though OHIP covers the surgeon. That’s two months of income for me.”
While the Ontario Ministry of Health maintains that all medically necessary procedures remain covered by OHIP, the Coalition report documents numerous instances of “administrative fees,” “facility charges,” and “premium options” that create a two-tier system based on ability to pay.
The Ontario Health Coalition report also highlights an alarming accountability gap. Private clinics operate with significantly less oversight than public hospitals, with fewer reporting requirements for patient outcomes, infection rates, or readmissions.
In response to the report, Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones stated that “all healthcare options are being explored to address the unprecedented backlog of procedures,” adding that “patients care about receiving timely care, not where that care happens.”
Yet for communities like Sault Ste. Marie, where the closest private surgical clinic is over three hours away in Sudbury, location matters tremendously. Transportation barriers often mean the choice between delayed local care or no care at all.
Dr. Michael Fernando, Chief of Surgery at Sault Area Hospital, acknowledges the strain. “Our operating rooms could be running at full capacity if we had the nursing staff and resources,” he explains during a brief interview between surgeries. “Instead, we’re seeing our funding diverted elsewhere while our wait lists grow. It’s demoralizing for everyone.”
The report comes at a critical time, as the provincial government prepares its spring budget. Healthcare advocacy groups are calling for an immediate audit of healthcare funding flows and a moratorium on new private clinic contracts until their impact on the public system can be properly assessed.
Back at the hospital, Elaine has finally completed her echocardiogram after nearly three hours of waiting. As she gathers her belongings, she offers a parting thought: “My parents’ generation built this public healthcare system. I’m watching it being dismantled piece by piece, and I wonder what will be left for my grandchildren.”
For communities across Ontario, especially in the north, that question hangs in the balance as public healthcare dollars continue flowing toward private interests, leaving public institutions—and the patients who depend on them—increasingly vulnerable.
