The Council replies: Letters to the editor
Better ways to go

Angela Giles
The Chronicle-Herald (Halifax)
March 24, 2008

Describing plans to contract surgeries to Scotia Surgery ("Cutting-edge way to cut wait times," March 19), it’s great Premier Rodney MacDonald posed the question, "What part of the idea don’t they agree with?"

Many people will be shocked to learn our government plans to pay a private surgical clinic as part of its strategy to reduce wait times. Wait times are a serious problem; however, there are many examples of how the public health-care system has successfully reduced waits without drawing on the private sector.

One example is the Queens-way-Carleton Joint Replacement Project in Ottawa – a public project that sees patients no later than two weeks after they are referred by a doctor. Lists are streamlined and surgeons expect to perform 1,200 joint replacements in 2008 – three times the number completed in 2004.

Our government should be looking for more innovative ways like this to reduce wait times. Instead, it plans to allow Capital Health to contract the facilities of Scotia Surgery Inc., a private, for-profit facility.

We need to voice our opinions on this issue quickly.

Angela Giles, Atlantic Regional Organizer, The Council of Canadians