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B.C. Wins Showdown With Private Clinic; Clinic Won't Bill Patients

Posted on: Saturday, 2 December 2006, 18:00 CST

By ELIANNA LEV

VANCOUVER (CP) - The B.C. government won a showdown with a new, urgent care clinic, reaching an agreement with the facility that will bar the clinic from charging patients.

But for the first time in Canada, the private clinic will also allow patients to get treatment for which they would normally have to go to a hospital.

The high-tech facility, which opened Friday, will now operate like any other walk-in clinic. It will charge the government for the services rather than billing patients potentially hundreds of dollars, Health Minister George Abbott said Saturday.

"We did meet for about three hours yesterday for I guess what would be called a frank exchange of views. But it was a good, constructive meeting."

Under the compromise, patients who don't want to go to an emergency room can instead go to the state-of-the-art Urgent Care Centre and have their broken arm set or serious cuts stitched up, among other things.

Dr. Mark Godley, who runs the centre, said patients win.

"This is an unprecedented opportunity for patients to have choice," Godley said at a news conference Saturday.

"There will come a time when there will be competition. There will be other health-care providers who will see this model and who will imitate this model. They will open up in competition to us. I think that's a good thing."

Any patient, regardless of ability to pay, can walk into the clinic and present their B.C. Care Card and receive treatment for non-emergency injuries.

The clinic remains privately owned and operated, just like most doctors' offices and traditional walk-in clinics.

The biggest difference is that the False Creek Urgent Care Centre has much more advanced diagnostic equipment than most clinics and can perform procedures normally confined to crowded emergency rooms.

"It certainly is much beyond what one would expect," Abbott said.

Godley said he's confident his clinic will be able to support the purchase of such expensive equipment by providing more efficient service than emergency rooms and by allowing patients to pay for elective diagnostic tests such as a 3-D ultrasound.

NDP health critic Adrian Dix said the compromise isn't good enough because it was reached in secret and will allow the private health-care sector to thrive.

"What the premier and the health minister have done is they've put a big sign here on West Eighth St. saying 'Queue Jumpers Come Here,"' Dix said outside the clinic.

Dix also said he expected patients will be pushed into buying the other services the clinic provides, a charge Godley has denied.

The clinic opened its doors to a throng of media and some protest Friday.

The Urgent Care Centre planned to charge a range of fees for procedures, including an evaluation fee of $199, $50 for blood tests and $70 to set a cast.

Twenty-four doctors who work in emergency departments around Vancouver are employed by the Urgent Care Centre, which treats broken limbs, lacerations and other conditions requiring "prompt attention."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has condemned so-called dual practice where doctors work in the public and private systems simultaneously.

Harper told Alberta Premier Ralph Klein earlier this year the practice offers a financial incentive for doctors to send patients into the private portion of their practice and leads to queue-jumping by those that can afford to pay.

Godley had said he was confident the centre was operating within the terms of the Canada Health Act.

But the B.C. government disagreed.

On Thursday, the government proclaimed legislative amendments giving the Medical Services Commission the power to audit the centre and seek an injunction to shut it down. Premier Gordon Campell threatened prosecution.

On Friday, Abbott said the commission met to appoint inspectors to audit the new clinic and look into his concerns about extra billing and patient safety "on an urgent basis."

That work was expected to begin Monday.

But after the agreement Friday night, Abbott said his office will be advising the commission of "this sharp departure that has been undertaken at this clinic in terms of its billing practices.

"That may produce some change in how they (the commission) will move forward."

Source: Canadian Press

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