Brind.
Part of Systemwide healthcare costs are rising faster than funding, involving the Ontario Hospital Association and Niagara Health.

How will outsourcing practices in Ontario affect hospitals?

Outsourcing practices are causing public hospitals in Ontario to face funding austerity. Outsourcing surgeries and imaging to private for-profit clinics in Ontario has contributed to systemic strain on the healthcare system. This growth of the for-profit industry, which benefits from substantial public funding, occurs as public hospitals face funding austerity. The Ontario Financial Accountability Office estimates that $6.4 billion in new health care spending is required in 2026-27 just to maintain current service levels.

Reported by 1 independent outlet Written Monday
Effect
Strong negative
How direct
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The story
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How it reaches hospital

Reported by news outlets

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The facts so far

As reported. Each one links to where it comes from.

  • Median wait times for eight of 12 priority procedures increased between 2017 and 2025cp24.com
  • In 2024-25, about $674 million went to for-profit surgical and medical imaging in Ontario, an increase of 48 per cent from 2017-18cp24.com
  • The Ontario Financial Accountability Office estimates that just to maintain current service levels, $6.4 billion in new health care spending is required in 2026-27cp24.com
  • Costs in the hospital sector have been increasing by about six per cent per year due to population growth, aging, and inflationcp24.com

Why it matters

Hospitals are the core providers of care, and systemic funding issues threaten their ability to maintain service levels. The required $6.4 billion in new spending to maintain current services highlights the severity of the financial challenge facing the public sector.

This trend is linked to the 2023 passage of Bill 60, which enabled private clinics to conduct more OHIP-covered surgeries to reduce the province’s surgical backlog. This legislation is making surgical and diagnostic privatization more deeply entrenched in Ontario’s health care system.

What we don't know yet

  • Will the provincial government implement policy strategies to scale up public sector innovations provincewide?
  • How will the increasingly long waits for patients beyond the 50th percentile affect public hospital demand?

What would change this answer

The government significantly increases health care funding beyond the current budget plansThe funding austerity faced by hospitals would lessen, potentially stabilizing operations.
The government reverses or restricts the scope of Bill 60The growth of the for-profit industry would slow, potentially reducing systemic strain on public hospitals.

Reporting

Keep going

The full eventOntario outsourcing of medical procedures linked to rising patient wait times Everything abouthospital

Brind's analysis is written by AI from the reporting linked above and can be wrong. It explains possible effects; it is not investment advice.