Private Sector Can Do It Quicker and Cheaper

In the real world this would be the option of choice but not in the Smitherman
world.......

Cheaper knee-replacement clinic gets cold shoulder
LISA PRIEST
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

The Ontario government has rejected a proposal to have 1,500 knee replacements done at a private Toronto hospital, even though it would have helped reduce waiting times and cost $1,000 less per knee than in the public system.

A letter obtained by The Globe and Mail shows that the Health Ministry considered the proposal from Don Mills Surgical Unit Ltd. to be "relevant." And at $5,800 a case, it was described as being "less than the provincial case cost."

In fact, the Don Mills Surgical proposal, made in late January, was $1,082 lower than what the government now spends to have the same knee-replacement surgery performed at a community hospital. If the proposal had been accepted, Ontario taxpayers would have saved more than $1.6-million.

In a letter written to Brenda Rasmussen, president and chief executive officer of Alegro Health Corp., parent of Don Mills Surgical, a government official wrote that the "initiative you are proposing is relevant, particularly in light of ample evidence pointing to a very significant growth in demand for hip and knee joint replacements.

"As our processes dictate, however, it is important that we first review the hip and knee volumes already allocated to hospitals in Ontario before moving forward with your proposal," said the letter from Hugh MacLeod, associate deputy minister, health system accountability and performance division.

But any enthusiasm about the proposal was extinguished when Ontario Health Minister George Smitherman told a news conference last week that he would never support funding knee operations at a private, for-profit hospital.

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