nurse! nurse!
I use to be a staunch defender of all public healthcare system, not that I am against
profitable corporation I just don’t feel a hospitals should be maximizing the bottom line
of life, and wellness, not the financial bottomline. So when the government of Alberta
started allowing overnight clinics I was concerned even though I don’t live in Alberta;
what provinces would follow suite if the federal government doesn’t step in. What is an
overnight clinic, but a private hospital by another name. After seeing a documentary on
healthcare systems in Europe that use a combination of private, and public owned hospitals
I have a new perspective I am not against private hospitals as long as people are not turned
away just cause they are unable to pay. The government pays whether you go to a public
facility or private one if you waited too long to get your surgery. In fact a lot of these mainland
Europe countries that use combined private public hospital system not only have short,
or no wait times for needed surgery some of them spend less per capital on healthcare
that Canada. Although I don’t want to see use adapt an American style private healthcare
where families go into bankrupcty from one accident, or illness; that is not good for the
economy; our premiers and their health ministers can learn something from European
public and private healthcare. The wrongness in the what the Campbell government in
British Columbia is they shut down hospitals left right and centre some of them in one
hospital communities. Other hospitals were downgraded to care centres. This would
be okay if they campaigned in 2001 that they would have to close some hospitals, but
they did not. They promised that they to protect healthcare; they said they would not
close hospitals, or tear up contracts, but they broke both promises.
Had they said they would close some hospitals than they would have
some moral right in that they’d be keeping their promises albeit negative promises.
It was unethical to close hospitals in single community hospitals without first having
something planned in fill their place. Furthermore, if someone can get knee or hip
replacement sooner at a private day clinic instead of waiting a couple of years
at a hospital and they it doesn’t cost them out of pocket so be it. It may be cheaper
than the alternative of waiting 2 years plus another 2 years recovering from that
surgery all the while being on disability instead of working.
