Why these doctors support Doug Ford's plan for private surgical clinics

The Doug Ford government is poised to give independent clinics a greater role in performing surgeries and scans currently done in hospitals, and some doctors are speaking out in favour of the controversial plan.

Ontario's Ministry of Health is currently laying the groundwork for the creation of what it calls community surgical and diagnostic centres, to open later this year. 

The centres will perform OHIP-covered procedures such as hip and knee replacements and MRI scans. The clinics could be privately owned. 

Ford and Health Minister Sylvia Jones insist that no Ontarian will have to pay for surgeries or scans in these facilities. Despite that, the government's plan is drawing criticism for allowing the private sector to profit from the publicly funded health system.

CBC News did in-depth interviews with three Ontario physicians who believe that criticism is misplaced. They argue creating these clinics will increase the availability of procedures that typically have months-long waiting lists, making life better for patients. 

The most fundamental reason the three physicians put forward for supporting the creation of the clinics is that they predict they will shorten the time that patients spend waiting for procedures. 

"When you restrict surgeries to being only done in the hospital, it limits the access for patients," said Dr. Brian Rotenberg, a surgical specialist in otolaryngology (ear, nose and throat) , who also runs Surgical Services Ltd., a consulting firm with expertise in launching independent surgical clinics. 

Dr. David Jacobs, a radiologist and president of the Ontario Association of Radiologists, says independent clinics will bring efficiencies in the cost of delivering care and reducing wait times. 

"We are lacking access to care in Ontario," said Jacobs. "We have to decide whether we are going to take an ideological approach to healthcare or whether we're going to take a pragmatic approach." 

Dr. Bob Litchfield, an orthopedic surgeon and a professor of surgery at Western University, says Ontario's health system provides timely care for such things as trauma and cancer, but falls down when it comes to many other procedures. 

"I think we just should just take that on as a challenge to really look in the mirror and say can we do better," he said. 

The latest Canadian data shows Ontario has the best record among the provinces on patients getting hip and knee replacements within the national benchmark of six months, and the shortest median wait for an MRI. 

However, Canadian wait times (including Ontario's) for such procedures are significantly longer than what patients face in other countries with universal healthcare systems.

The doctors point to such countries as the Netherlands, Sweden and Australia, where publicly funded surgeries and scans are delivered in private sector clinics outside of hospitals.