Designer health clinics to open in Ontario

See here.

These clinics are going to charge private money for "preventative" health care services like nutrition and physical therapy. All publicly insured services would be billed back to the province, so the clinic is not in contravention of the Canada Health Act.

It seems that the only thing these clinics offer above and beyond what you get in the regular system is speedier service and more time with your doctor when you are in his or her office. The average length of a doctor's appointment in the regular system is 7 minutes. The clinics are offering what they call "unhurried medicine".

Myself, I don't really understand how this scheme would help the consumer. Let's say you are 55 years old and think you need a new knee. You go to this designer clinic, they feel around and tell you that you do in fact need a new knee. Let's also assume that they have a joint replacement specialist on site who confirms the original analysis. He or she then refers you to a public hospital to get the operation done. You're still going to face a waiting list up to one year in length. So what does it do for you, really?

It sounds like these clinics are more in the business of making money off of nervous Nellies than they are in the business of threatening public health care.