Defend Public Healthcare

A great new short video from CUPE in Saskatchewan on the privatization of surgeries is right here: Their had been plans to develop a new $14 million public surgical centre that would perform 7,000 surgeries per year and house a pre-admission clinic to relieve pressure on acute care hospital facilities.  It was supposed to be operational by March 2011 - -but the government has postponed or cancelled the plans for the centre.   Saskatchewan sources say instead the government has funded private clinics at millions of dollars with poor results. “Instead of expanding surgical capacity, the region has simply transferred the surgical work to the private sector,” said Gordon Campbell, President of the CUPE Health Care Council in Saskatchewan. To boot, an existing private clinic is suing the Regina health region for the potential loss of $10 million after a contract was awarded to a Calgary-based private clinic! Saskatchewan was the birthplace of public health care in

The BC Health Coalition has released a report showing that for-profit clinics are charging patients extra to jump the queue for services covered by public health care:  "Research conducted over three months (June – August, 2010) by BCHC staff has revealed that for-profit clinics across the province continue to openly charge patients additional fees to jump the queue for services that are publicly insured. " The BC Health Coalition’s report can be found here.   Also this week, the BC government announced extra funding for 'patient focused funding' (aka price based funding), a funding model that has some similarities to 'fee for service' funding used in the US.   BC is   reported to be increasing this form of funding to 20% of hospital funding by 2012-13.  The NDP has called on the government to audit private clinics as they could be getting a share of 'patient-focused funding' for surgeries and MRIs. BC Health Services Minister Kevin Falcon has