The great Medical Dictatorship and The light of Day.

   While Canadians are being denied excellent health care by their government under the pretense that allowing duly qualified physicians to provide care on a private free enterprise basis to those patients who opt to pay for it, there are some rays of hope that some buds of the two-tiered system are sprouting up in various areas in Canada.  They are often in areas where they are not too easily standing out from the weeds, for fear of being ruthlessly stamped out by the dictators who don't want the folks to discern that there is an alternative.
   One such sprout is Dr.Brian Day of the Cambie Surgery Centre.   Dr.Day, is an orthopedic surgeon, who has served as President of the Canadian Medical Association and is an Honorary Associate Professor of the University of British Columbia.   He has launched a lawsuit challenging government laws that ban private insurance for medical services.  The Supreme Court of Canada abolished laws banning private health care in Quebec, stating that "access to a waiting list is not access to care".and "The evidence shows that delays in the public health care system are widespread and patients die as a result of waiting for public care."  There is something very wrong when citizens of one province enjoy constitutional rights that are denied to others.  The Government is denying Canadians the right to buy services that they are unable or unwilling to provide.  It is difficult to understand how the government has managed to convince citizens that allowing a private parallel system would result in a deterioration of the standard of care when in fact, it would result in an improvement of available services and a significant shortening of waiting times.  It would also shorten pain, suffering and disability times. There is a reason government resorts to these unethical tactics with very specific goals in mind, which I will go into later.  In the meantime we will return to the story of Dr. Day.  Dr. Day contends that if the government cannot provide a medical service within an acceptable time then it does not have the right to prevent those suffering from obtaining healthcare privately.  Dr.Day and some patients are challenging the constitutional right of the government  to prevent patients from buying health care.  Nine years ago Dr. Day  and the clinic filed a charter challenge to BC's ban on private health care, as they violate a section of the Canadian charter of rights.  This case is still going on nine years later.  The trial did not start until September 2016 and it looks as though it will continue for a long, long time at an inestimable cost.  After initial judgement it will, no doubt go on to the Supreme Court.  It will cost millions and millions of dollars and government will do everything in its power to delay it and to have the other side run out of money.  They don't have to be concerned, because they are spending your money and if they are running low, well they'll just put up your taxes a bit.  They think you're too stupid to even notice - and they may just  be right!
   If you are willing to put up with one of the worst, if not the worst health care systems in the developed world, then you just have to be satisfied with what you get when your time comes and you or a member of your family needs timely and compassionate care- and it will.  Meanwhile, those who do their research and prepare themselves properly will at least be aware of the options when and if the time comes.  Because, while third class care is better than none, most of us want something better for ourselves when something serious comes along, especially the politicians and their serfs.  
   Finally, as one who has practiced medicine for more than half a century, let me tell you most physicians have grown exasperated and weary of having the course of medicine determined by a group who have little insight into health care and are not interested in learning about it.  Most of the dedicated physicians I know are looking for a way out, not because of greed but because of the Stupidity Quotient (SQ) of the elites in administering the service and the deliberate disrespect they show to physicians.   Early retirement is increasingly attractive when conditions of practice becomes increasingly intolerable and taxes become increasingly punitive.  We are already losing some of our most experienced and talented physicians.
   In the meantime for the sake of the public and for the sake of the profession, I hope Dr.Day and the Cambie Clinic are successful.
Please do not leave a comment if you do not care what happens to the health care system in Canada.

In Emerg not all patients are equal.

                 Think of the emergency Department of any busy hospital.  Crowded with people, some seriously ill and some with (medically) no right to be there, at all.  You are patient number ten in order of presentation.You have a history of a previous heart attack ten years ago and just started feeling weak and unwell.  You are seventy, and your neighbour drove you to the hospital and dropped you off because your husband is away for the day associated with a part-time job he has and she doesn't want to leave you in the house as you are feeling weak..  The triage nurse asks you if you have any chest pain and when you say no that you just feel a little woozy, assures you that the doctor will see you eventually, after the nine ahead of you are seen.
                  Of the nine patients ahead of you, there are three coughing adults who are concerned that they have the flu, a man with low back pain that he has had for months but getting worse so he thought he should come in on the way home, a kid with a sore throat and another with an earache, a hockey injury, a nosebleed, a migraine headache and a person who needed a refill for a pain prescription.   An hour and forty minutes later you feel weak, lose your sense of balance and are sliding off your chair when the patient next to you catches you and calls the nurse.  You are placed on a stretcher and wheeled into the examining room where you are seen promptly by the doctor and treatment instituted immediately.   
                  What's wrong with this picture?
                  Patients with most of the above complaints should not be in an emergency department at all.   Most of these problems should be dealt with by the patient's family physician, which is how things were managed in the past.  This allowed the emergency room physician to direct his efforts to emergencies.  Unfortunately, through gross administrative mismanagement and failure to adequately understand the structure of the health care system, the administridiots have once again undermined an adequate if not ideal system.  A shortage of family doctors, restrictions which make it difficult for family physicians to get established where they wish and a shortage of residency training positions in family medicine ensure that there will be no solution to these problems in the foreseeable future.  The situation will to get worse as the population increases and in the meantime anyone unfortunate enough to need the services emergency rooms were created to provide will wait times that are unacceptable and sometimes unsafe.

Since you might end up in an absurdly overcrowded ER some time, perhaps you have some views on this?