Researcher shocked by Moira Stilwell's suggestion of private health-care discussion

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      A Vancouver-based health-policy researcher is criticizing a proposal by B.C. Liberal leadership candidate Moira Stilwell to initiate a public discussion on private health care.

      According to public-health advocate Colleen Fuller, plenty of studies have already been conducted on the impact of private surgical clinics on wait times.

      “There is evidence—there have been assessments—and her government has ignored the evidence that exists in Canada and internationally that suggests that these private surgical clinics do not have a positive impact on people waiting for surgery in the public system, in fact the opposite,” she told the Straight by phone.

      In a speech in Prince George on January 25 to launch her health-care plans, Stilwell proposed a dialogue on “the ways the private system might be able to help the public system”.

      “Are there ways the capacity in the private system can be used to help relieve waitlists for routine procedures? For example, hip and knee replacements might be able to be done more efficiently in the private system,” the physician said in her speech. “If so, we should be looking at contracting these services.”

      Speaking by phone, Stilwell told the Straight, “There is a legal decision in Quebec”¦that indicates or suggests strongly that private care is here to stay. So, pretending we can’t see it and averting our gaze can only hurt us.”

      Fuller cited a WorkSafeBC–funded study that looked at the impact of expedited surgeries, both in the private sector and through the hospital system.

      “What they found is in fact that the amount of extra money that they’re paying to expedite surgeries is not yielding the results that one would expect,” she said.

      Fuller said the study showed that the shortest wait time for surgery was under an expedited procedure performed in a publicly-funded hospital.

      “This is evidence that has been accumulating over the past number of years, and for a Liberal candidate to indicate that she is not even aware of what the evidence is suggesting is shocking,” Fuller added.

      Stilwell said one question that could be asked as part of a discussion around private health care is: “Will the public system pay for my follow-up care if I have chosen to have a private operation?”

      “My personal preference would be to say that if you choose private care for your procedure, you’ll need to stick with private care for any follow-up,” she said in her speech. “But that’s just my opinion. My point is that we need to free ourselves to have this discussion.”

      B.C. NDP leadership candidate Adrian Dix gave credit to Stilwell for speaking about health care during the campaign, but disagreed with her approach.

      “The only restraint she seems to want to put on private health care is that if people come back into the public health care system, that they not be able to use the public health care system, something which is impractical and probably not possible,” Dix told the Straight by phone.

      Dix said some health authorities have already contracted out surgeries.

      “The government’s had a don’t ask, don’t tell policy on private health care for years,” he said.

      “All of the evidence suggests that the answers are to improve service in the public system—it’s more efficient, less costly to the taxpayer and better for patients.”

      In addition to the dialogue on private health care, Stilwell proposed changing the province’s approach to primary care by focusing more attention earlier on patients with chronic diseases, creating a role for health advisers to help people “manage their own health”, increasing emphasis on early diagnosis of mental illness, providing incentives for northern and rural doctors, and allowing Canadians who study medicine overseas to practise in B.C.

      Comments

      12 Comments

      Neil Edmondson

      Jan 26, 2011 at 6:12pm

      Public health advocate shocked at private health advocacy. Big surprise there.

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      Pat

      Jan 26, 2011 at 7:47pm

      Yes. Let's move toward the American system of health care. Look how well that's working for folks in U.S. (not).

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      Steve Y

      Jan 26, 2011 at 9:49pm

      France has some private care and has better health care than Canada. Why can't we look at their model?

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      nachum

      Jan 26, 2011 at 11:22pm

      This is why the <a href="http://bit.ly/i1piNv">BC Liberal leadership race</a> will not change anything about the party.

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      RonS

      Jan 27, 2011 at 8:22am

      Well, well, the worms are surfacing. I'm not surprised she is saying this. She hasn't a chance at being Preem so she's looking for a Cabinet position and what she's saying fits right in with Kevin "the Hawk" Falcon. She must believe he will win the job!

      When big Pharma starts donating to your re-election campaign you start spouting their vomit. Privatization should never happen in Canada and for her to open the subject just shows everyone where the LIbERalS are coming from. Easily bought this bunch.

      "Step up! The pig trough is open!" should be their campaign slogan!

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      Paul W

      Jan 27, 2011 at 4:03pm

      So we cannot even have a discussion about private health care? Is Colleen Fuller so poor a researcher she is concerned she cannot make the case for public health care? I can make the case for why allowing private providers will make the public system worse. And I am not afraid of hearing contrary perspectives.
      I would like to hear from people like Ms. Fuller and Adrian Dix how we are ever going to improve health care in this country when every time someone advocates a different position they are shouted down by a hysterical mob who will not hear of any solutions but their own.

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      Migzy

      Jan 27, 2011 at 10:23pm

      While I am not opposed to having a discussion as to how we can improve our healthcare be it public, private but public paid, or private with private paid, typically these gov't initiated discussions are one-sided to only talk about the direction they want to take - look at the fed gov't "discussion on copyright, none of it was about to how to solve the issue of piracy, if it is an issue, but was instead all about making copyright more restrictive.

      I'm afraid any discussion would just end up being how we can improve healthcare by adding private care, instead of just how can we improve healthcare. Or it would just digress into the unions yelling out their viewpoint and the liberal gov't/fraser institute/tax payer federation/etc yelling out their opposite viewpoint, ie. the same as now, and nothing productive would come of it.

      Some changes are required, such as better accounting for costs(be it $$ or time) in the public system, so as we have somewhere to start as to where efficiency can be improved be it better hospital design, equipment, scheduling, training, etc. Right now most of it is general funds, nobody knows what the exact cost is per surgery is or the biggest drags on the system. This would probably result in some growing pains as the system is implemented and improved over time to better meet the needs of the users. And would prob involve a fair bit of up front cost, but if it improves things down the road, maybe the yearly cost increases will be more manageable instead of our skyrocketing costs.

      I know public healthcare isn't a business and probably shouldn't be run exactly like a business, but it should learn a thing or two about how the best business are run in terms of efficiency/etc while still providing proper care. I by no means mean that we should be sending people out the door before they are healthy enough to safely do so. Nor should their be quotas for the number of people a doc has to see per day or how long they have per patient, but if a change or two allows(not requires) a doc to see more people, we need to investigate how that best can be done.

      Efficiency improvements, etc can only be done if both sides employer/employee come to the table with open minds(ie. not jumping to conclusions about some little point without listening to the whole idea) and have a respectable discussion about how to gradually bring about change in a way that works for everyone. None of this crap, "on such and such a day, we will be contracting out cleaning services" or this "figuring out how much it costs per surgery/procedure is just a way for the gov't to dictate what kind of operation you can get instead of what is the best way to fix you".

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      Argulion

      Jan 28, 2011 at 8:37am

      The true colours of the modern politician, pander to a few with money that might financially support your campaign while ignoring the true needs. A quarter of this province lives at or below the poverty line. How will private health care options work for them, or do low income people not matter because they are not likely to finance a politician's campaign?

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      bowser

      Jan 28, 2011 at 5:22pm

      Hey Pat, while health care might be very expensive in the United States, I don't think the Canadian model is anything to be proud of.

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      good idea

      Jan 28, 2011 at 11:46pm

      I live in an apartment with neighbours who spend their time drinking and smoking excessively. The lady is on her last legs and the husband looks like your typical deadbeat government worker. They have issues and we all pay for people like them who clog up the health care system because they don't take care of themselves. Private health care with basic health care covered until you are 18 and over 65 seems like a good idea and works well in Australia.

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