Help stop the first private ER from opening in Vancouver

(see update below)

Canada’s first private emergency care clinic is slated to open in Vancouver, British Columbia. The False Creek Surgical Centre already provides many non-medically necessary treatments like hip and knee replacements, but now wants to provide emergency care for an initial cost of $199. Additional diagnostic tests and treatments would cost more. The clinic will not take acute (and expensive) cases such as accident victims or heart attacks, which would be referred to public emergency wards.

This clinic will provide “medically necessary” services for a fee, thus clearly breaching the Canada Health Act. The owner of the clinic is trying to hide behind smoke and mirrors. This is what he had to say about poorer patients who might not be able to afford the clinic’s fees: “Buy us a gift… Let's go back to the old days [when people bartered for medical service].”

According to False Creek’s Medical Director Gordon Bird, the clinic will hire physicians who already practice in the public system – another major breach of the Canada Health Act.

British Columbia Health Minister George Abbott has admitted that this project “probably” breaches the Canada Health Act, but he hasn’t committed to taking action yet.

If you're a resident of British Columbia, write Health Minister George Abbott and urge him to prevent this clinic from opening.

If you’re from outside British Columbia, write federal Health Minister Tony Clement and demand that he crack down on this clinic, because it violates the Canada Health Act and sets a dangerous precedent for health care across the country.

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UPDATE:

Thanks and kudos to every one of you who took the time to express your concerns about the possible opening of a private ER clinic in Vancouver that would have been illegal under the Canada Health Act. Almost 500 letters have been sent in the first three days of this campaign.

This clinic has, indeed, opened. However, following negotiations over the weekend with British Columbia Health Minister George Abbott, the clinic will not charge patients for its emergency services and will receive payments for them from the province’s public insurance plan.

This is not a perfect solution, as we are witnessing the birth of a new private, for-profit clinic instead of a public, or not-for-profit clinic. On the other hand, an imminent threat to medicare has been avoided… for now.

The private, for-profit nature of the clinic is a problem that will have to be tackled, in view of the rise of such clinics across the country. The Council of Canadians is working with doctors and patients across Canada to fight the incursion of private health care in Canada, and to stand up for our public medicare system.

In the meantime, let me thank you again for your participation and your contribution to this small victory in a much larger confrontation to protect and enhance public health care in Canada.

Guy Caron, Health Care Campaigner
The Council of Canadians

 

Visit www.profitisnotthecure.ca and join us to save public health care! Sign the petition!

 

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