Christine Van Geyn: Court Decisions That May Help Modify Canada's Healthcare

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed with painful clarity. One is Canada's miserable insufficiency. Medical system. Although the system has shown that it cannot cope with the onslaught, multiple Ontario hospitals are still overwhelmed by thedeclining number of COVID cases and hospitalizations. This system is in desperate need of overhaul and innovative thinking.

At the end of May, Brampton Municipal Hospital announced "Code Gridlock", and Ottawa's East Ontario Children's Hospital (CHEO)was. Said. 34} The emergency department said, "May is the busiest and is on track to set a record for June."

CHEO added that 16 patients were on June 11th. He said some patients were hospitalized, had no beds, and stayed in the emergency department for nearly 48 hours. In April, Ontario patients spent an average of 20 hours in the emergency room before admission to the hospital, compared to 14 hours last year.

The Ontario Nurses Association said that the reasons behind the current crisis include capacity issues that existed before the pandemic, a shortage of nurses, and an ongoing flow of COVID hospitalizations. It states. Therefore, while COVID is part of the puzzle and may continue for some time to come, this current crisis seems to be like returning the system to a normal failure state.

The overwhelming emergency department is just the tip of the iceberg. Ontario has a pandemic backlog of1 million surgeriesand approximately 22 million medical services. In Canada, long waiting times for surgery have become a systemic problem due to the proportion of medical services in systems operated by the government monopoly.

It's no wonder Canada was easily overwhelmed by COVID. Even if COVID doesn't make things worse, we regularly bully on the verge of being overwhelmed. Canada has fewer beds than most other developed countries, and according toOECD data,has only one bed for every 400 citizens in this country. Even before COVID-19,91.6 percentof the Canadian intensive care unit was occupied.

Long waiting lists and corridor medical care have real impact on patients. Longer wait times can worsen the patient's condition. Patients who do not receive timely care not only suffer from waiting time, but also have worse medical consequences and may even die waiting for medical treatment.

Innovation is needed. Canadian law prohibits patients from having the option of accessing medical care in a critical way. That is, paying for medical expenses directly or indirectly through private insurance.

In Canada, there is what is called the Canada Health Act (CHA). This law establishes a framework for federal financial contributions to state and territoryhealth insuranceprograms. This is commonly referred to as "Medicare". Universal,CHA to establish the principles of single payer health care

The state government has enacted in response to its dependence on the Canada Health Act and federal transfer. did. Their own law to shatter the perceived threat to Medicare.

For example, the Government of British Columbia has enacted the Medicare Protection Act. This created a total ban on private insurance and dual practice (when doctors work in both public and private systems). This is beyond the goal of universal care. The law actively prohibits patients who are not properly treated by the public system from receiving the necessary treatment outside the public system.

As a result, government-provided healthcare systems can easily be overwhelmed and patients suffer from worsening waiting lists. In the name of an ideological ideal, it is a mistake to force a patient to suffer on a waiting list beyond a medically acceptable waiting time, and legal groups such as the Canadian Constitutional Foundation have it that the patient's charter. It also claims to be a violation of the right to the safety of those protected by. But instead of seeking innovation during times of crisis, the state government continues to fight patient medical choices in court and defends the failed system.

In British Columbia, a private surgical clinic, including the Cambie Surgery Center, is B.C. The Medicare Protection Act violates the patient's charter rights by prohibiting patients from seeking medical care outside the government system in the event of failure. The court's objection began in 2009 and the trial took more than four years. The decision of the trial was announced in 2020, and the appeal was heard just one year ago in June 2021.

British Columbia Clinic They continue to operate because they have obtained an injunction until the outcome of the appeal. Therefore, public systems are allowed to treat patients who are unable to respond within the maximum waiting time.

Meanwhile, B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix proudly promoted the strategy of using these private clinics to eliminate the surgical backlog resulting from a pandemic cancellation. It's a very ironic strategy, given that the same clinic has little basis to even run under his government crackdown.

The decision in this case is expected soon. The results can have a significant impact on Canada's health care and can affect permanent deadlocks and wait times that patients have had to get used to sadly.

National Post

Christine Van Geyn is the head of proceedings for the Constitutional Foundation of Canada.

1. Cambie Clinic proceedings may bring about a better healthcare system

2. Our healthcare system needs choices to survive