QUEEN’S PARK— MPP France Gélinas (Nickel Belt), Official Opposition Health critic, reintroduced the Transparent and Accountable Health Care Act today. This bill aims to increase the transparency and accountability of health sector organizations receiving public funding.
“With the Ford Conservative government putting more of our public health dollars into for-profit, investor led clinics; it’s very important that Ontario implement oversight provisions to protect those public dollars,” said Gélinas. “We saw how much money could be pilfered during the ORNGE Air ambulance fiasco. The diluted chemo drug scandal also showed Ontarians that lack of oversight can directly affect patient care.”
The government voted down all 74 NDP amendments to Bill 60 yesterday at the Social Policy committee. Bill 60 will create a two-tier system, by allowing investor-led private clinics to operate surgical suites and diagnostic medical imaging clinics that would charge patients for many services.
The Transparent and Accountable Health Care Act would apply to health sector organizations, as well as to publicly funded suppliers. The Act would mandate more public disclosure for these organizations, including Executive Compensation and Salary Disclosure. The Act would also classify these organizations and suppliers as governmental organizations under the Ombudsman Act and would permit Auditor General oversight.
“Treatments for at least 665 patients at London Health Sciences Centre were affected by the Diluted Chemotherapy Drugs scandal,” said MPP Terence Kernaghan (London North Centre). “The Social Policy Committee of this Legislative Assembly met for weeks of hearings between April and October 2013 and created a strong report with multiple recommendations. To my knowledge none of those recommendations have been acted upon and that’s shameful. Ontario needs to learn from its mistakes and take action to ensure they don’t happen again.”
MPP Gélinas first introduced this bill in 2015, based on recommendations from the ORNGE air ambulance and the diluted chemotherapy drugs reports.