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Canadian Doctors Send Message of Uncertainty on Future of Public Health Care

Posted on: Wednesday, 23 August 2006, 15:00 CDT

By CHRIS MORRIS

CHARLOTTETOWN (CP) - Doctors attending the annual meeting of the Canadian Medical Association have sent a message of uncertainty about the future of public health care in Canada.

Motions passed by delegates at the Charlottetown meeting, which ended Wednesday, both endorsed and defeated various initiatives that would open the door to more private funding and private care in Canada.

The medical association's leadership admitted delegates have left them with a tangle of options and opinions that will have to be sorted out if the organization is to present a united front to the public and to governments.

"Frankly, the message is mixed," said Dr. Ruth Collins-Nakai, past president of the association which represents Canada's 62,000 physicians.

"What delegates did say is they do not want to close the door on any potential solution to improve access to care for our patients."

Delegates at the three-day meeting in Charlottetown sent their first signal of disaffection with the status quo by electing a private-care practitioner - Dr. Brian Day - as president elect. He will take over as CMA president next year.

They also passed several motions making it clear they want the CMA to consider more private options, including urging governments to allow physicians to opt out of the public health care insurance program, "provided that patient access to publicly-funded care is not compromised."

They also rejected a motion that would have asked governments to oppose new parallel private health insurance systems.

Earlier, doctors passed a motion calling on the CMA to make recommendations recognizing the strengths of the publicly-funded system and to identify reforms within it.

Some of the most impassioned pleas for a strengthened public system came from young doctors attending the meeting.

Dr. Ben Hoyt, a surgical resident from Halifax, said the message from the meeting is that there is "lack of clarity" on the public-versus-private issue.

But Hoyt is clear on his own personal stand.

"A single mom of three should not have poorer access to health care than myself as a physician or my lawyer neighbour who can afford private insurance," Hoyt said.

"We're all equal. Health care is a right, not a privilege and we should all have equal access to quality care in Canada. That's what makes Canada great."

However, many older, experienced physicians could not contain their anger and frustration over the deterioration of health care in Canada.

Dr. Ronald Wexler of London, Ont., past president of the Ontario Medical Association, said doctors are fed-up trying to make do with less and the whole system needs to be re-examined.

"We don't have enough doctors, nurses, hospital beds. We don't have enough physiotherapists. We don't have enough ability to access care for our patients," Wexler said.

"If we had enough resources in the public system we wouldn't be having this debate."

Dr. Colin McMillan of Prince Edward Island, the new president of the medical association, said a middle-of-the-road solution seems to be what doctors are urging.

He said physicians don't like the status quo, but they don't want a completely parallel private system.

"It's an issue that is evolving," he said. "It's a work in progress."

Source: Canadian Press

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