March 20, 2008

As reported by CBC News on March 12th, Nova Scotia Health Minister Chris d'Entremont announced that the province agreed to sign a one-year, $1-million contract that allows surgeons with the Capital District Health Authority to use operating-room facilities in Dartmouth, N.S., owned by Scotia Surgery Inc. This private orthopedic clinic is renting its facilities out at a rate of $500 an hour for 500 publicly-paid surgeries over the next year, starting in April 2008.

UPDATE (April 16, 2008): THE CONTRACT WAS OFFICIALLY SIGNED MARCH 28TH, 2008 AND THE FIRST PUBLICLY-FUNDED SURGERY HAPPENED ON APRIL 1ST, 2008. A COPY OF THIS CONTRACT CAN BE VIEWED HERE: http://www.cdha.nshealth.ca/defaultnc.aspx?page=NewsDetails&news.Id.0=26115

This contract marks the beginning of a slippery slope towards the privatization of our health care system in Nova Scotia. Premier MacDonald doesn't even deny this in his Opinion Editorial published in the Chronicle Herald yesterday. As Guy Caron, Health Care Campaigner with The Council of Canadians points out, "Studies have shown that private clinics have higher costs, lower health outcomes, provide no public accountability, and draw health care professionals from the public system."

Sadly, Minister d’Entremont has said of this contract, "We are proud to be taking a national leadership role in reducing wait times."

The Council of Canadians believes the Nova Scotia government should be looking at innovative ways of reducing wait times within the public system and opposes the decision made by the Conservative government of Nova Scotia to contract public health care services to a private for-profit clinic. We join with the Nova Scotia Citizens’ Health Care Network, the Canadian Union of Public Employees – Nova Scotia, the Nova Scotia Nurses Union and the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union in calling on the provincial government to abandon this contract. We believe paying a private clinic is a misuse of public funds and opens the proverbial floodgates of the privatization of Nova Scotia’s health care services.

Take action now!

There are many examples across the country of the public system successfully reducing wait times. Write to Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald today to express your support for public solutions to wait times. Public funds should never be used to pay private, for-profit clinics.

Send your letter using the form below to Premier MacDonald (Premier@gov.ns.ca), NS Health Minister d’Entremont (healmin@gov.ns.ca) and Federal Health Minister Tony Clement (Clement.T@parl.gc.ca).

Angela Giles, Atlantic Regional Organizer

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SEND YOUR LETTER NOW:

Subject
Recipients	To: Premier@gov.ns.ca; healmin@gov.ns.ca; Clement.T@parl.gc.ca
Compose your letter in the box below.
Dear Premier MacDonald, I was shocked to hear that Nova Scotia has signed a contract with a private surgical clinic as part of its strategy to reduce wait times. I recognize that wait times are a serious issue, however there are many examples across Canada where the public health care system has successfully reduced wait times without drawing on the private sector. As one example, the Queensway-Carleton Joint Replacement Project in Ottawa is a publicly-funded and publicly-delivered project that sees patients no later than two weeks after they are referred by a family physician. Waiting lists have been streamlined and surgeons expect to perform 1,200 joint replacements in 2008 - three times the number completed in 2004. I join with the Council of Canadians and other concerned organizations to call on the Nova Scotia government rescind its pricey contract with Scotia Surgery Inc. and keep those needed dollars in the public health care system. Sincerely,
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