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Canadian Constitution FoundationCambie v. MSCBC et al.: No Choice?«Cambie v. MSCBC et al.» «Press Releases» «Related Audio»
Dr. Brian Day isn’t concerned with who provides healthcare or who pays for it when treating his patients. So long as his patients are getting the treatment they need in a timely manner.
Unfortunately, as Dr. Day understands all too well, limiting choice in health care causes harm to those who need the care most. In the early 1990s, the government of British Columbia, desperate to get runaway spending under control, cut funding to health care. The cut resulted in a reduction of Dr. Day’s operating time at the University of British Columbia from 22 hours per week to less than 5. Dr. Day still had hundreds of patients to treat, and the waiting list was getting longer and longer, but no respite would come from the government system. Unwilling to leave his patients suffering while waiting for permission to actually treat them, Dr. Day decided to take matters into his own hands. In 1996, Dr. Brian Day, with the help of other doctors and independent investors, established the Cambie Surgery Centre (CSC) in Vancouver.
The first of its kind in Canada, CSC is an independently run facility that offers state-of-the-art surgical theatres for anyone requiring surgery. Free from the bureaucratic burdens of many public hospitals, CSC is able to offer more hours and facilities for surgeries reducing the unnecessary wait for treatment. Following in Dr. Day’s footsteps, at least 50 other independent surgical facilities have opened in BC since 1996. In order to maintain their facilities, they need to charge their patients to cover facility costs. But these fees are a small price to pay to not have to wait months suffering emotional and physical pain waiting for a surgery at a public hospital.
However, the British Columbia Medicare Protection Act restricts the opportunity for patients to have access to independent surgical facilities like CSC by prohibiting the charging of these “facility fees.” Government employees, prisoners and patients specifically referred through Worker’s Compensation and other government legislation can access CSC on a moment’s notice, but the regular taxpaying citizens of BC are denied the same choice. It’s for this reason that Dr. Day has commenced an action in the BC Supreme Court seeking a declaration that the BC Medicare Protection Act violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Section 15 of the Charter maintains that the government must treat everyone equally. This guarantees patients seeking medical care to equal protection and equal benefit of the law and government action and programs relating to health care, without discrimination. The provisions that allow the government to designate groups that can access health care quickly while others must wait are a violation of this section. In the 2005 Chaoulli decision, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) held that access to a wait list is not access to healthcare. Chaoulli makes it unlawful for the province of Quebec to force patients to remain on wait lists by preventing them from purchasing private health insurance. Dr. Day is asking the BC court to apply the reasoning accepted by the SCC in Chaoulli and find that BC residents suffering on wait lists have the same legal protection as Quebecers. Waiting for necessary medical treatment imposes a significant financial and emotional burden on individual Canadians and their families. By going to court, Dr. Day hopes to eliminate costly wait-lists, increase access to innovative technologies, and permit greater choice for the delivery of healthcare services. This is about saving, not dismantling public healthcare in Canada. Experiences in Europe, and elsewhere, show that hybrid systems of private and government care complement each other. Success in this action will mean a Canada with better care and access for all. Patients will finally receive the services they need in a timely and fair fashion. Current laws force patients to suffer and languish while waiting for medical treatment. This is a violation of their Charter rights.
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