Private ER centre plans not legal, critics say
Canada's first private emergency room is scheduled toopen next week for urgent care services, thoughboth adminstratorsand the B.C. health minister aren'tentirely certain of its legal status.
TheFalse Creek Surgical Centre, which already performs private surgery for a fee,won't be allowed to accept patients from ambulances or allow patients stay more than 24 hours when it opens next week.
Dr. Mark Godley, the centre's medical director, said the emergency room will operate much like those in small, publicly funded hospitals, and with similar hours: 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.
"The facility is just like any small cottage hospital emergency room," he said. "It's the first time in Canada that this will be done."
Godley said he doesn't know where the centrefalls under the Canada Health Act, and has said previously the clinic answers to theCollege of Physicians and Surgeons, operating on a legal basis under theMedical Practitioners Act.
B.C. Health Minister George Abbott said it was "difficult to see" how the centre could provide urgent care services under the provisions of the Canada Health Act. He promised the government would look into the matter.
The centre, a 6,000-square-foot facility, has three operating rooms, six recovery beds and five overnight stay rooms.
It operates six days a week, with a nurse-to-patient ratio of up to one nurse for every three patients. Its licence allows patients to stay overnightfor care following surgery.
Full selection of services
There is a private medical centre operating in Montreal that provides services for minor emergencies, but Godleysaid his centre will offer full emergency medical, diagnostic and surgical procedures
Spokeswoman Sherry Wiebe said the service was necessary, citing a study that concluded that as many as 57 per cent of people inpublic emergency departments could be treated elsewhere.
"We don't see this as competition at all," Wiebe said.
Wiebe said a comprehensive examination at the centre would cost $199, though there could be additional costs as a result of the examination.
The B.C. board memberwith Canadian Doctors for Medicare condemned the plan.
"It's reinforcing a direction that people that have money can go to the front of the line, at the expense of people that have less money," said Dr. Margaret McGregor.
Province turning blind eye to private care: critics
Godley said the centre wrote to Abbott about its plans several months ago, butreceived no reply from the health minister and sodecided to proceed.
NDP health critic Adrian Dix said the provincial government is ignoring the growth of two-tier medical care in B.C.
"They have a legal and moral obligation to enforce the laws of our province, including the Medicare Protection Act," he said.
Dix called for Abbott's resignation,and saideitherthe health minister had been negligent in allowing thecentre to get close to opening, or had made a secret deal with its administrators.
Mike Old, spokesman for the Hospital Employees Union, said the news of the first private emergency room is disturbing.
"It's a really alarming development. Doesn't this government believe that every family and every child deserves equal access to health care regardless of their income?"