In a move to stop hospitals promoting medical tourism, without waiting for legislation, Ontario’s health minister Eric Hoskins has sent a letter to the province’s 150 hospitals asking them not to market to, solicit or treat international patients. Ontario aims to restrict the freedom of hospitals to solicit and treat international patients after healthcare groups raised concerns that medical tourists from abroad might displace Ontario patients.
In a move to stop hospitals promoting medical tourism, without waiting for legislation, Ontario’s health minister Eric Hoskins has sent a letter to the province’s 150 hospitals asking them not to market to, solicit or treat international patients.
Ontario aims to restrict the freedom of hospitals to solicit and treat international patients after healthcare groups raised concerns that medical tourists from abroad might displace Ontario patients.
Health Minister Eric Hoskins has sent a letter to the province’s more than 150 hospitals asking them not to market to, solicit or treat international patients with the exception of international patient activity related to a hospital’s existing international consulting contracts.
A coalition of health-care groups, led by the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO), called for a ban on medical tourism. Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, one of the hospitals involved, has put its medical tourism programme on hold.
The Ministry of Health will work with hospitals on a framework to ensure compliance with the outlined principles and requirements. The letter does not have any legal weight, but as hospitals get the vast majority of their income from Ontario’s public healthcare insurance, it takes a brave or foolish hospital to ignore the instructions.
Doris Grinspun of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, is pleased,
“Thousands of healthcare professionals have written letters to Premier Wynne and Minister Hoskins demanding this kind of action.” Adrianna Tetley of the Association of Ontario Health Centres says ” Medical tourism undermines our universal, publicly funded and not-for-profit health system and we will keep working on this issue until there is a complete ban.” Kelly Stadelbauer of the Association of Ontario Midwives adds, “Midwives care about the system in which they work and have always been opposed to any scheme that turns health into a for-profit commodity to be bought and sold.”
After admitting that several Ontario hospitals have been providing care on a for-profit basis to people from outside Canada and generating millions of dollars in revenue, Hoskins explains, “I am committed to working with hospitals to continue to protect our universal health-care system.”
Dan Raza of Canadian Doctors for Medicare comments, “The announcement ensures that publicly funded healthcare resources will not be diverted away from treating Ontarians. We recognize the budgetary challenges that hospitals face, but there are innovations that can improve the financial sustainability of our healthcare system without resorting to a two-tier care delivery model.”
The coalition will closely monitor the promised changes over the next few months to ensure the province lives up to its promise and bans medical tourism.
Every Canadian hospital sees foreign patients in emergencies, such as tourists who have accidents in Canada. But international patient programmes targeting medical tourists are more recent in Ontario.
This is the most organised attack on medical tourism by medical professionals anywhere in the world, and signals a trend in several countries to restrict inbound or outbound medical tourism.
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