Marshall said we sold them ( concierge ) to scrn ( for 0 profit buddy buddy deal ) as we now have a duplication in service ! Well please someone explain to me how ? Medcall has no physical location do they ? Are these doctor's whom are recruitet performing this work ? The answer is we got f_cked on this deal as retail shareholders.
Ontarians with positive rapid tests are struggling to get appointments for confirmatory PCR tests, and those who have managed to get tests are waiting days for results.
But if you’ve got $350 handy, you can get your test results in an hour at private clinics popping up across the GTA.
As COVID-19 cases surge, clinics such as FH Health, which has a location at the Eaton Centre among more than a dozen others, are drawing criticism online for offering PCR tests for $159 with sameday results, or $350 for an hourlong turnaround.
Health professionals are concerned, not with the individual companies, but with a government that they say has enabled a two-tier system by underfunding public health care.
FH Health isn’t the only clinic offering PCR and other tests for a fee. Other clinics in Ontario have similar prices advertised online, such as Rapid Clinic, Sant Medic, Switch Health and more. Many offer multiple locations; FH Health boasts 20, and its Eaton Centre location opened in November amid a surge in travel.
Palliative care physician Naheed Dosani said while the price of private PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests is an issue, the broader problem is the inequity of some people being able to pay for quicker access to potentially life-saving health care.
“Meanwhile, my patients are testing positive on rapid tests, and can’t seem to get access to a PCR test for days,” Dosani said. “It really should make every Ontarian so angry.”
In an email, FH Health president Melody Adhami stressed that the company only provides testing for asymptomatic people who don’t qualify for public health testing, such as travellers or people seeking reassurance.
“Travellers and tourists should not be a drain on our public health system or taxpayer dollars,” Adhami said, “particularly at a time when testing is in such high demand.”
She said if a symptomatic person shows up, the clinic refunds them and refers them to the closest public testing centre.
At a news conference Thursday afternoon, Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, announced measures intended to streamline testing after news of delays and difficulties with the current system.
The Ontario government is now recommending PCR testing only for symptomatic people in certain occupations, such as hospital patients and health-care workers; hospitalized patients; people from or working in First Nation, Inuit
We’ve just seen it every step, people being priced out in a pandemic. It does a lot of damage to our health-care system.
DR. ANDREW BOOZARY UNIVERSITY HEALTH NETWORK
and Mtis communities; high-risk contacts; and several other specific groups.
Symptomatic people who don’t fall into those categories are being asked instead to take rapid antigen tests.
“This updated eligibility will ensure that those at highest risk of severe outcomes and those caring for them have timely access to test results,” said Moore.
Andrew Boozary, a primary care physician and executive director of social medicine at University Health Network, said it’s “disheartening” to see this happening two years into the pandemic.
“We’ve just seen it every step, people being priced out in a pandemic,” he said. “It does a lot of damage to our health-care system.”
Boozary said the fact that private companies can offer tests for hundreds of dollars is a symptom of a wider issue that existed pre-pandemic.
“This whole mirage of universality that we have is undone,” he said. “It’s becoming clearer and clearer just how un-universal our healthcare system is.”
But at this time, with thousands of COVID-19 cases per day, it’s particularly unconscionable, he said, and alienates the people who need tests the most.
“(There) has been chronic underinvestment in our public health infrastructure. And now, private companies are seizing on this and it feels exploitative. It causes real divides,” Boozary said.
In an email, an Ontario Ministry of Health spokesperson said the government “does not have oversight over which companies decide to offer private testing, nor over the prices they charge.”
These companies still have to follow the ministry’s guidance for private testing, said the spokesperson.
ICU nurse Birgit Umaigba said while she had previously seen PCR tests being sold specifically for travel, she was shocked to see such a high price on tests that seemingly anyone could take.
After almost two years of the pandemic, Umaigba said one thing seems clear: “We’re not all in this together.”
“This is why people lose faith in public health,” she said, adding that any inequity and lack of access to PCR tests and vaccines will continue to cause undue burden on health-care workers and the health-care system.
“This has to stop, and it has to stop right now.”
Doctors have told the Star that the public testing system can’t keep up with current demand, and that the number of active COVID-19 cases may be much higher. One expert estimated that more than a million Ontarians could currently be infected.
Though some argue that private clinics are helping shoulder the current burden on the public health system, Dosani disagrees. He said research shows a two-tiered health system can actually decay the public system.
“This is an example of … the privatization of health care right under our noses,” he said.
This is an example of … the privatization of health care right under our noses.
DR. NAHEED DOSANI, PALLIATIVE CARE PHYSICIAN