Support a strong, public health care system
Safeguarding and expanding our public health care system should be one of our province's top priorities. Yet government is eroding that system by undervaluing health care workers and opening the door to privatization.
Public money siphoned off to private clinics
Surgeries that should be provided within the public health care system are now being performed in private, for-profit clinics. Omni Surgery Centre in Regina and Surgicentre in Saskatoon have been receiving public money to perform day surgeries on a for-profit basis.
In June, 2011, the contract for providing private surgeries in Regina and Saskatoon was handed to a Calgary-based company, Surgical Centres Inc. (SCI), which runs private clinics in Alberta and B.C. The government is re-directing funds that should be used to build capacity in our province's hospitals to profit-driven centres, owned by a handful of private investors. And now those private investors are large, out-of-province corporations.
At the same time, government has put a hold on funding for capital investment in a new public outpatient surgical care centre in Regina.
Privatizing health care means:
- higher costs;
- less money for public health services; and,
- fewer health professionals in the public system.
Private clinics cost more
When our tax dollars are used to pay for medical procedures in private clinics, we are picking up the additional costs of running a parallel, private system. We are paying for privately-owned facilities, equipment, supplies, and, of course, a profit for investors. Without a significant profit margin, private investors would not be interested in operating these clinics.
Alberta: Private clinics not reliable
The Alberta experience with private surgeries shows that we cannot rely on for-profit clinics, according to University of Toronto health policy analyst Dr. Michael Rachlis. The Calgary-based private, for-profit Health Resource Centre had to be bailed out by the public Alberta Health Service (AHS) to the tune of $2 million in May 2010. A few months later, the AHS took legal action to get out of its contract with the for-profit facility and is now planning to handle its surgeries through an expansion within the public Foothills Hospital.
The Manitoba experience also shows that the public system provides better cost efficiencies. Waiting lists were shortened and the costs of some surgical procedures were reduced after the Manitoba government bought the private Pan Am Clinic in 2000. Cataract surgery cost $1,000 when done by the private clinic, but only $700 after the for-profit centre was absorbed into the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.
Health region ordered to stop privatization
The government's privatization agenda has been derailed in one health region because of a union challenge.
In a landmark ruling, arbitrator Dan Ish held that since the Regina Qu'Appelle Health Region could not show that it was more efficient to privatize surgeries, it should stop paying for procedures in private clinics by 2013. The decision stemmed from an arbitration hearing between the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and the health region. CUPE contract language prevents the employer from contracting out public work unless it can be demonstrated that doing so will be more cost effective.
In his decision, Ish confirms what health policy analysts and researchers have concluded in recent years. It is most cost-effective for governments to build upon the strengths of the public health system, rather than pay private companies to perform surgeries.
Staff shortages worsen
There is a province-wide shortage of health professionals. Spreading our limited human resources across two systems - public and private - does not solve the problem. In fact, it will make the staff shortages in the public health system worse. We need to maximize staff recruitment and retention in our public hospitals and health care facilities.
Health service providers at risk
It is not only medical services that are possible targets for privatization. Also at risk are a wide range of health support services, including dietary, environmental services, maintenance, laundry, security, clerical, lab and other technical and administrative services.
Experience in other provinces, such as B.C., shows that privatization leads to wage cuts, understaffing, loss of benefits, reduced training. These negative working conditions lead to high staff turnover, increased absences due to injuries and illnesses - and ultimately, lower quality services for patients.
In Saskatchewan, private, for-profit services are gradually making in roads into many aspects of our health system.
Some health regions now serve patients pre-packaged, frozen food provided by private companies, instead of healthy meals freshly prepared on-site by local workers.
Strengthen the public system
Health providers are the backbone of our health care system. But heavy workloads, stressful work environments and inequitable wages and benefits are making it difficult to hire and retain skilled, experienced workers.
Staff shortages lead to heavier workloads, which too often result in workplace injuries. Health care employees have a workplace injury rate three times higher than any other occupation in the province. In the first six months of 2011, there were 2,433 injuries reported by health staff to the Workers Compensation Board.
Difficult, often unmanageable, working conditions force many health providers to find employment in other fields.