“There should be a law”: One Patient Pays $ 13,245.85 in Drug Dispensing Fees
I work in an addiction treatment clinic. Some days I think there is little that would shock me, but then there is always the pharmacy industry. Recently we had a…
Ross Sutherland
Laboratory Services Expanded in Huntsville and Bracebridge Hospitals: Point of Care Testing Fails to Meet Expectations
Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare (MAHC) has restored a regular night shift in its medical laboratories at the Huntsville and Bracebridge hospitals. This is a victory for viable community hospitals. It is…
Ontario Budget Debate Ignores Taxes and Billions Transferred to For-Profit Corporations
Ontario’s budget debate may be high profile, but it misses two essential points. With the NDP signaling NO TAX INCREASES (on the middle class) a serious discussion about taxes, particularly…
Edmonton’s Medical Laboratory Proposal: A Private Insanity
I wrote the following post as an op-ed in the Edmonton Journal, October30, 2013. I hope it plays a part in halting the privatization of Edmonton’s medical laboratories. The Alberta…
Private Hospitals in Specialty Clinic Clothing
The provincial government’s mid-summer announcement that regulations under the Independent Health Facilities (IHF) Act will be drafted to permit “specialty clinics” raises some serious concerns. Changes in the LHINS enabling…
Fragmentation, Private Profit and Home Phlebotomy
Every day there are stories of how the fragmentation of health care hurts patients. A few, when a patient dies, make the media. Most often fragmentation causes small inconveniences, but…
Response to Toronto Star Pro For-Profit Clinic Opinion Piece
On December 10, Rick Janson, Campaigns Officer, Ontario Public Service Employees Union, published the following post in response to an opinion piece in the Toronto Star: Who should you trust?…
Will That Be Raspberries With Your Rectal?
The changing face of primary care is on special at Loblaws’. Primacy, a for-profit chain of primary care clinics, has 112 outlets in Loblaw Stores. Most Loblaws’ also have in-store…
Privatising Preventive Care – the For-Profit Flu Fight
Flu season is upon us, and it seems that the for-profit-health-care bug is infecting primary and preventative care. The yearly campaign to increase the number people vaccinated against the flu…
Quality Program Fee Increases and IHF Corporate Concentration
This year Independent Health Facilities (IHFs) in Ontario will start paying an annual administrative fee to cover the costs of their quality control program plus a new fee for the…
Health Facility License Auction Health Cost Driver
It seems so obvious in hindsight: if you want to know what is going on in business-side of community medicine look where doctors look – the classified section of The…
Canada Health Act used in Zombie Defence of For-Profit Health Care
Andrew Duffy, in an article syndicated by Postmedia, made the logical equivalent of mixing metaphors when he used the Canada Health Act (CHA) to legitimize the use of private clinics.…
Quality Problems Plague Britain’s Largest Privatized Laboratory
The Guardian newspaper reported a decline in quality at the Kings College Hospital trust and the St. Thomas Hospital trust’s recently privatized pathology services. The report cited in the article…
Public Interest Duty Should Stop Shouldice Sale
Can Ontario’s Minister of Health, Deb Mathews, stop the transfer of the Shouldice Clinic to the health care conglomerate, Centric? Absolutely, it is within her powers under the Private Hospitals…
The Risks of For-Profit Community Care
With the sale of the Shouldice Clinic to a health care conglomerate it is useful to review some of the literature comparing for-profit hospitals to non-profit hospitals. The results show…
Missed Opportunity: Corporate Conglomerate Buys Shouldice Center
The Ontario Government has missed an opportunity with the sale of the Shouldice Clinic to health care conglomerate, Centric Health. The government could have purchased Shouldice and integrated its services…
Methadone Clinic Limits Doctor’s Employment
One of Ontario’s little known private secrets is that most methadone, a staple of opiate addiction treatment, is primarily provided by for-profit clinics. Last week a doctor who works in…
GlaxoSmithKline Sets Record with 3 Billion Dollar Fine
And the list goes on. It is no secret that many for-profit health companies in the United States are regularly fined for various forms of fraud, usually cheating Medicare or…
Public Pay Public Benefits
The new graphic beside this post features logos from five corporations delivering essential medical services in Canada. The represent the reality of a broad range of for-profit companies benefiting from…