Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott is accusing NDP Leader Andrea Horwath of “crying wolf” following the leak of a confidential draft bill that would establish a health care “super agency” to create “efficiencies” in the system and empower the Ford government to privatize more services.

“This is a very early draft of legislation,” Elliott said Thursday. “It’s not been finalized.”

The new “super agency” to oversee health care was first revealed by the Star on Jan. 17, with sources saying the intent is to improve services for patients by streamlining and integrating the vast system, and putting agencies such as Cancer Care Ontario under one layer of control.

“If there was any doubt that this government is committed to massive privatization in health care that doubt vanishes with this bill,” NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said after her staff released a draft copy of the Health System Efficiency Act, 2019, obtained Wednesday evening.

Elliott acknowledged the health system needs “transformative change” and said “the status quo is not acceptable,” pointing to the 32,000 Ontarians on waiting lists for long-term care beds and the more than 1,000 patients being treated in hallways daily because of hospital overcrowding.

“We will have more to say about our transformational strategy in due course,” she told reporters, saying “the health system was built for bureaucracy, not for patients.”

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Elliott would not reveal whether the plan will lead to more privatized delivery of health-care services, but said “what people receive now is through OHIP and that will continue.”

The bill is marked “confidential” and contains notes from staff involved in writing it. There is no specific date on the document.

Horwath said the legislation makes a “sham” of Ford health-care czar Dr. Rueben Devlin’s consultations with patients and the health-care sector. Those consultations have the goal of providing recommendations this spring to improve the system and eliminate “hallway medicine.”

Devlin’s first report was released Thursday, with the orthopedic surgeon and retired president of Humber River Hospital noting the complex health-care system is “difficult” for patients to navigate and pointing to the need to make treatment paths smoother.

“While the Ford government is publicly pretending to consult on health care, in the backroom legislation designed to privatize our health-care system has already been drawn up,” Horwath said.

Dr. Danyaal Raza, a Toronto family doctor and chair of Canadian Doctors for Medicare, said the draft legislation makes him wonder how serious the government is about seeking advice from Devlin, a former president of the Progressive Conservative party and a member of Ford’s campaign team last spring.

“It seems this government’s mind is already made up.”

Under the draft bill, the super agency would have the powers to “designate” providers of integrated care providing a mix of at least two of the following: hospital care, primary care, mental health, addictions, home care, long-term care, and palliative care.

Horwath said this opens the door to private corporations, with Ford “friends and…insiders reaping the profits.”

Also under the draft bill, Elliott would be given the power to dissolve Cancer Care Ontario, eHealth Ontario, the Ontario Health Quality Council, Trillium Gift of Life Network, any local health integration network, the HealthForce Ontario marketing and recruitment agency and “any other prescribed organization.”

A cabinet document obtained by the Star in January suggested such agencies would be blended into the new super agency.

In terms of funding, the bill would give Elliott the power to “consider whether to adjust the funding (of the super agency) to take into account a portion of the savings from efficiencies…in the previous fiscal year and that the super agency proposes to spend on patient care in subsequent fiscal years.”

That could mean “reckless cuts,” Horwath warned. Ford promised during the election not to cut health-care spending, but to find efficiencies as his government cuts a total of $6 billion spending on the way to eliminating annual deficits.

Elliott said at her news conference that the government “is committed to building a health-care system centred around the patient and redirecting money to front-line services…capturing better value for our health dollars.”

A source told the Star an official announcement on the super agency, which the legislation says will have a 15-member board of directors, is expected in late February.

Liberal MPP Mitzie Hunter said it’s time for the Ford government “to come clean and tell Ontarians what the true agenda is.”

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In an interview with the Star earlier Thursday, Devlin was asked about the prospect of a super agency and said there are “barriers in the system with regard to the agencies,” which have been under review by Elliott.

“When people say they couldn’t navigate the system well, it’s that when you leave one part of the system and go to the other, it’s like you have to jump over a hurdle.”

He cited the example of a patient being discharged from hospital, needing home care and getting it without a time lag or hassles.

“The ideal situation is you are discharged from hospital and driving home you get a call on your cellphone saying, ‘this is home care calling, what time would you like me to be there today.’ That’s what I want. I want things to be seamless.”

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