Three MRI machines in Niagara hospitals are only being used during the day, according to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
In a report about privatizing health care, researcher Andrew Longhurst says the provincial government keeps putting money to private clinics, instead of public hospitals.
He adds that includes 20 operating rooms in Niagara. "The majority are not funded evenings or weekends, so we're seeing a policy direction that favours for-profit facilities, at the expense of increasing the public capacity, and reducing wait times."
He says the government claimed wait times would drop with private, but that has not happened. "Public hospitals are infrastructure that Ontarians have already paid for. We don't need to open new, private facilities, when we already have the infrastructure sitting idle, unused, unstaffed... so, it really is a head scratcher, when you add it up."
He says more money is needed for equipment and staffing of public care.
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