Premier Doug Ford and Health Minister Sylvia Jones are to announce early next week that the province is preparing to increase the number of surgeries and diagnostic procedures carried out in privately run for-profit clinics. 

Senior government sources say the number and range of surgeries done at the ”independent health facilities,” beginning with cataract procedures, then orthopedic surgeries such as hip and knee replacements.

Ford says he doesn’t like the word ‘private’ because it’s really not.

”No Ontarian will ever have to pay with a credit card.  They will pay with their OHIP card,” the premier stressed this week.

Various health-care professionals worry this would drain resources from publicly funded hospitals and benefit owners of the clinics.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons feels hospital staffing shortages would only get worse and wait times would become even longer.

Doris Grinspun, CEO of the Registered Nurses’ Association, says the clinics would take her members away from hospitals.

”Nurses don’t grow on trees,” Grinspun adds.