B.C. clinic promises to work within public health system

British Columbia's health minister says hehas struck a deal with the operator of the province's first private emergency health-care facility, securing a promise that billing plans will adhere to provincial guidelines and the Canada Health Act.

George Abbott says the agreement reached Friday night will allow the False Creek Urgent Care Centre in Vancouver to continue to treat emergency cases without charging fees directly to patients for necessary procedures.

When CBC News broke the story of the clinic, Abbot said he didn't like the fact that patients would be paying $199 for a basic evaluation, $50 for X-rays and $70 for an arm cast.

Abbott said it looked like a blatant contravention of the Canada Health Act, which prohibits charging fees for medically necessary procedures.

"We were very concerned with the fees that were proposed in the earlier model, and I'm glad that we have worked through now to something which I hope can make this new centre an asset to the health-care system."

Now, Abbott says patients will present a health-care card when they visit the False Creek Centre and taxpayers will foot the bill.

There were no details available fromrepresentatives of the clinic, whoplanned to hold a news conference later on Saturday, according to media reports.

At an extraordinary cabinet meeting on Thursday afternoon, the government authorized B.C.'s Medical Services Commission to send inspectors to the clinic. If they found evidence the law was being broken, the commission would seek an injunction to shut it down, theminister said.

Operators of the centre, which opened Friday, said they would not handle patients in need of intensive care, but would stabilize them before sending them to a hospital emergency ward.