TORONTO: The Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) has released results of a national poll that show a large amount of support for private healthcare options to deal with the surgical backlog caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Almost every province shows a majority of the population supports the development of private healthcare options to address the hundreds of thousands of medically necessary surgeries that have been delayed as a result of COVID-19,” said CCF Litigation Director, Christine Van Geyn.
The poll showed that support for private healthcare is over 50 per cent in every province except Ontario, which had 48 per cent in favour and 42 per cent opposed. The largest support for private healthcare options is in Quebec where 71 per cent of the population supports the development of private options, and only 23 per cent oppose. The poll was conducted between September 28 and 30, and included 1,023 Canadians with a margin of error of +/- 3.1% for the national sample.
“Canadian patients were dealing with hallway healthcare before the pandemic, and many patients languish on wait lists because of the failing government monopoly on healthcare. Now the backlog of surgeries has increased by hundreds of thousands of patients as the pandemic has caused surgeries to be cancelled or delayed. These delays, when combined with the lack of alternatives for patients to seek out care, compromises patients Charter protected right to life and security,” continued Van Geyn.
The surgical backlog in Ontario is already enormous. The CCF previously released documents obtained through freedom of information that show nearly 170,000 medically necessary surgeries were delayed between March and July. The backlog has unquestionably grown larger since then.
In British Columbia, the government is using existing private surgical clinics to address the 93,000 patient backlog. The COVID-19 pandemic has delayed over 32,000 medically necessary surgeries in that province.
“Private surgical clinics have existed in British Columbia for over 20 years, and are part of the solution to the growing surgical backlog. Our poll results show that the general public understands that patient need must come first. The public is open to the idea of developing private healthcare options in order to meet patient needs. It’s time for our politicians to get on board,” concluded Van Geyn.
For the original version of this release, see here.
