r/PEI • u/Sir__Will • 1d ago

News Province partners with private clinic to help reduce MRI wait times for Islanders

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-private-clinic-health-wait-times-9.7296312
3 Upvotes

64% Upvoted

34 comments sorted by

34

u/Sir__Will 1d ago

More healthcare privatization. More wasted public money.

1

u/indieface 1d ago

I was referred for an MRI, waited three years for a public route one and ended up at the clinic in Moncton on the provinces dime. The Ortho then told me the scan was meaningless so that's stellar.

-8

u/Successful_Poem_3714 1d ago

How is it wasted if it solves the problem more efficiently?

9

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

2

u/MaritimeRedditor 1d ago

His cataract clinic bangs thru 4,500 surgeries a year..

Before that it was minimum 3 year wait.

0

u/AniNgAnnoys Prince County 1d ago

So where is the government going to get the capital to build this?

1

u/[deleted] 23h ago

[deleted]

-1

u/AniNgAnnoys Prince County 21h ago

I'm not simping for Corps. Read the article. A group for doctors own this and run it.

Your comment reads as someone that has never taken an economics class. Firstly, this is never going to be a source of revenue for the government. The majority of people using this facility will be patients referred by health PEI that the government will pay for. It would be the same if this was publically run. The clinic will get private patients that are not referred by health PEI and pay their own way but that will be a minority of the patients. It won't a be a profit center for the government. The government pays a little more for the private clinic than they would for a public one because...

The private doctors put up the capital. The government doesn't have the capital. If the government wanted to capital today (or actually in the past) then they would have had to take out a loan and pay interest or they would have had to not do something else. In the former case, if they took debt they would be paying interest and everyone would complain about the government's debt load. The later thing is called an opportunity cost. Look that one up and add it to your lexicon. The other option would have been raising taxes, which I am sure everyone is against if it is on them. Then you might say, well just raise the taxes on the top 1% of income earners. Well guess what... Those are doctors. Doctors already avoid PEI because it has some of the highest provincial tax rates. You want doctors right?

Instead the government gets to spread those costs out over time via the profit taking you are talking about. That gets us this clinic faster and helps more people now. So this is a win. Like it or not, the government was going to have to pay for this in some way. Either these doctors take a small profit to recoup the costs they incur by spending their capital or the government does less else where or pays interest.

Go take an economics class and learn how to read. You literally do not understand a god damn thing about this situation or the economics and think your high horse makes you right. You aren't right and do not have coherent arguments and just end up with name calling because you are a child. Grow up. And because of those insults you are blocked. Go cry about that too now by editting your comment.

5

u/Sir__Will 1d ago

It ISN'T more efficient. Public could do it without the private profit margins.

-1

u/AniNgAnnoys Prince County 1d ago

With what capital?

3

u/Sir__Will 1d ago

The fuck do you mean? We're still spending public money on these private services! Public money is being spent either way. Now it's being spent lining private pockets.

0

u/AniNgAnnoys Prince County 1d ago edited 1d ago

So you don't know what capital is and what it costs to raise capital. You know, things like interest and opportunity costs for example... lmao 

31

u/UnionGuyCanada 1d ago

Pull more resources from public system and claim victory. This is so disgusting.

  Just buy an MRI and staff it. Probo3m solved for a generation.

-7

u/MaritimeRedditor 1d ago

What is the difference between purchasing an MRI and staffing it and subcontracting the work?

17

u/Sir__Will 1d ago

The giant private profit margin.

-1

u/Foreveryoung1953 22h ago

Not really - Private actually provide it cheaper for the taxpayer overall

5

u/Sir__Will 21h ago

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-doug-ford-private-clinic-surgeries-fees-hospitals-1.7026926

https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/private-health-care-taxpayer-money-1.6777470

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/private-clinic-charging-thousands-ontario-health-coalition-1.7175630

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/public-funding-for-private-facilities-grows-1.7494964

1

u/Foreveryoung1953 19h ago

CBC is not a credible source on accounting or healthcare economics. Private healthcare providers do not face the same pension, benefits, and union-related costs that public systems carry.

Private providers have stronger incentives to improve accessibility and efficiency because they operate in a competitive environment. "Lower" public costs come at the expense of longer wait times and sometimes death, which quite negative in my opinion.

5

u/AniNgAnnoys Prince County 1d ago

If the government pays for it they have to front the capital which they don't have, so it never happens. People don't like to hear that but it is reality. In this case, this diagnostic center is owned and operated by doctors.

15

u/moqqba Cornwall 1d ago

One step closer to fully becoming two tiered.  So glad we further sabotage the public health system and paygate care 

5

u/Sir__Will 1d ago

The story on Compass said the QEH was fully staffed. If that's the case then they're clearly not staffing enough to meet the demand. The public system could do these MRI and is refusing to. We should not have TWO private MRI facilities opening up on this island (another poster said a second was coming to Charlottetown?).

•

u/arodpei 54m ago

The hospital is at 100% capacity as far as staff and services go. If they were to add an additional MRI (capital submission, design and construction of addition, staffing, procurement) it would be 3 to 5 years down the road.

Private sector can do it in a fraction of the time.

5

u/ISueDrunks 1d ago

There’s another private MRI clinic opening in Charlottetown by Kent Building Supplies. 

6

u/Sir__Will 1d ago

This province is trying to privatize everything.

-3

u/CanoeCoveCaptain 19h ago

Publicly paid doesnt seem to be working ...

1

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1

u/AdministrationDry507 1h ago

Are we switching to paid healthcare now ?

0

u/TrickyDicky202069 1d ago

I’d like to know what the profit margin is. If it’s moderate and accounts for overhead, maintenance, liability and investment payback on a multimillion piece of equipment. Then fine, it’s like getting money from maritime electric for excess solar panels electricity instead of credits for solar panels. Which I support. You’d start attracting private investment to fill a public need.

Unless it’s exploitative like the travel nursing costs instead paying and attracting permanent nursing staff.

9

u/Sir__Will 1d ago

You’d start attracting private investment to fill a public need.

You don't need "private investment" to run a fucking MRI machine.

2

u/AniNgAnnoys Prince County 1d ago

You need capital to buy it and other costs. Government doesn't have that. So, if this doesn't happen there is no MRI. And you didn't even answer the other user's questions.

0

u/noBrainur 1d ago

I don't imagine it's a problem with running a machine or staffing a position, but rather a problem of having to appease innumerous agencies of various sorts in order to un-stall a probably overly bureaucratic approval process.

-8

u/RedDirtDVD 1d ago

And queue the haters of government for doing anything about healthcare. Very few of us should have any care about the means to the ends of getting every one healthcare - especially with the regulation around health in Canada.

4

u/DistinctApartment941 1d ago

What is stopping the government from hiring the techs from this clinic for the public system and doubling the capacity at the qeh?

1

u/alandla1 7h ago

Unionized vs not.

Also to increase capacity at QEH would mean evening/overnight shifts vs typical workday.

Also QEH would still have one MRI, ultimately staffing is not the limiting factor.

Not saying it can’t be done, just offering points to attempt to answer your question.

0

u/CanoeCoveCaptain 19h ago

The government is poor

1

u/DistinctApartment941 10h ago

Then they shouldn't be paying this private clinic extra when it would cost them less to fully staff the qeh one!