Most people in Waterloo Region face reduced access to privatized hospital services: new report

Polling shows 72 per cent of people in Western Ontario say it’s unacceptable for private clinics to charge patients

CUPE Ontario, June 13, 2025

Kitchener, ON – The privatization of hospital services in Ontario is negatively impacting the vast majority of Waterloo residents, as people with affluence gain increased access to private clinics at the expense of everyone else, says a new report released by CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU-CUPE).

The OCHU-CUPE report highlights the findings of a 2024 Canadian Medical Association Journal study showing that privatization of cataract operations resulted in surgical rates increasing by 22 per cent for the wealthiest Ontarians while declining for everyone else. Access to surgeries for the poorest people in Ontario declined nine per cent. The study noted that hospitals provided equal access to care.

The CUPE report comes a month after the Ontario government allocated $280 million to private, for-profit clinics in its recent budget. On the other hand, the budget increased funding for health care by two per cent, well below the 5.2 per cent annual health care inflation.

The union also commissioned a survey polling Ontarians about privatization. The Nanos Poll was conducted between May 27 and June 1, surveying 1,017 Ontarians over the age of 18.

The survey found that 78 per cent of people in Western Ontario think the government should prioritize spending on public hospitals rather than private clinics, with 85 per cent believing that public hospitals are understaffed.

Read more at CUPE Ontario