Wynne’s hospital privatization scheme diverts millions of dollars from front-line care

In question period on Thursday, NDP Health critic France Gélinas said the Liberal government must answer for its privatization scheme, which is now forcing hospitals to divert resources away from front-line care in order to cover millions of dollars in maintenance costs that private contractors refuse to provide.

The 2017 Auditor General’s report, released Wednesday, revealed that hospitals are diverting millions from operating budgets to pay for high privatized maintenance costs, which privative contractors now argue are not included in the price of the public-private partnership (P3) contracts Liberal and Conservative governments signed.

Previously, the auditor found that Ontarians were paying $8 billion extra because of those P3 deals.

“Yesterday, the Auditor General revealed that 16 P3 hospitals where ongoing maintenance and repairs have been privatized by this Liberal government and the Conservatives before them are being forced to take money from nursing and front-line care to cover millions of dollars in maintenance costs that the private contractor refuses to cover,” said Gélinas. “Every hospital the Auditor General contacted told her the exact same thing. They are not seeing the benefits that were promised under this privatized model.

“How can this government force our hospitals to take money away from nursing and front-line care just to mask the failure of this health care privatization scheme?” asked Gelinas.

P3s are a form of privatization in which a government pays extra to have a private sector company finance and sometimes also maintain public sector assets, like hospitals.

“Those P3 contracts were supposed to cover all hospital maintenance costs—that was the entire point of signing those contracts,” said Gélinas. “But now, hospitals are being forced to divert their operating funds—funds that this Liberal government froze for four years straight. Money meant to hire nurses, open up new beds, cut wait times, provide quality care—that money is instead being diverted to pay private companies that won’t hold up their end of the deal, that refuse to do the work.

“Why is this government forcing people to wait longer in our hospital system and forcing nurses to work without the proper staffing levels instead of stopping this massive failure of this health care privatization scheme?” asked Gélinas.