Ontario hospital's deal with Kuwait sparks fears of queue-jumping

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A Canadian hospital's bold plan to generate revenue by treating Kuwaiti cancer patients has raised concerns of queue-jumping and prompted the Health Minister to threaten action should any Ontarian be displaced.

"If it ever came to light that any Ontarian was waiting longer for surgery because of the hospital's arrangement," Deb Matthews said in a telephone interview Monday, "I would take immediate action."

At issue is a $75-million, five-year agreement between the University Health Network and the Kuwaiti government to provide cancer system consulting services but also treat a small number of Kuwaiti patients at Toronto's Princess Margaret Hospital for complex cancer care.

Ms. Matthews said she's been assured by UHN's president and chief executive officer Bob Bell that no Ontarian will wait a minute longer because of a foreign patient being treated at any one of its three downtown Toronto hospitals.

The case highlights a vexing problem for Canadian hospitals: With finite public funds, hospitals are seeking ways to generate revenue at a time when patients are waiting for care. Some hospitals in Montreal and Toronto have negotiated lucrative consulting deals in the Middle East, but won't make patient care part of the package.

Ontario's New Democrat Leader, Andrea Horwath, asked Premier Dalton McGuinty on Monday to demonstrate that the agreement is consistent with the Canada Health Act and Ontario's commitment to medicare.

"The government should be protecting patients, but it seems like they're more interested in pursuing profits, and that's just wrong," Ms. Horwath told reporters at Queen's Park.

"Our hospitals are jam packed. Specialists are limited and waiting lists for care are still far too long. No one should be able to buy their way to better treatment. No family should be waiting longer because someone has deeper pockets than they do."

Progressive Conservative health critic Christine Elliott raised allegations of potential queue-jumping. She blamed the government for not providing hospitals with adequate financial resources, which in turn is forcing them to look elsewhere for new revenue sources.

Specifically, Ontario's 154 hospitals received a funding increase of 1.5 per cent for the 2010-11 fiscal year, bringing the total to $14.92-billion - an increase that lagged behind the growth in operating costs.

"The government is putting hospital corporations in a difficult spot," Ms. Elliott said. "They don't have the resources they need."

UHN's Dr. Bell said the bulk of the agreement is consulting services and a smaller amount treating patients. Though no number has been agreed upon, Dr. Bell said treating 10 or 20 Kuwaitis a year for complex cancer procedures in Toronto that they can't receive in their home country would not displace Ontarians.

Sustainability of the health-care system, Dr. Bell said, is crucial and hospitals should seek ways of generating revenue, particularly if it does not compromise patient care. For every Kuwaiti who receives a bone marrow transplant here, he said, the revenues could mean another two or possibly three Ontario patients could be treated.

"Its irresponsible of us," Dr. Bell said, "not to look at opportunities that maintain the primary tenants of the publicly funded Canadian health care system and still allow us to look for other sources of funding."

His comments come as a group of Canadian hospital executives, including Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and Mount Sinai Hospital, is in the Middle East, keen to strike deals to find new sources of revenue.

The group is with Ontario's Minister of Economic Development and Trade, Sandra Pupatello, who is due back Friday from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait, where they are making a pitch for a piece of the multibillion-dollar hospital business.

"Why would Ontario not take advantage of the opportunity to expand revenues to our publicly funded health-care system," Dr. Bell said. "We'd be irresponsible if we didn't look at this opportunity."