Bearing in mind his history with the NDP in Saskatchewan and B.C. (including time as deputy minister of health), there are no surprises in Lawrie McFarlane’s attack on the legal rights of patients (“Brian Day’s arguments don’t stand up,” column, Nov. 18).
Our case is about the emancipation of patients from “medical enslavement” as they languish on government enforced wait lists. There currently 85,000 patients documented as waiting on the B.C. ministry website. Evidence will show that actual numbers are two to three times higher.
To refer to the constitutional challenge as mine, and to Cambie as “Day’s clinic” (I am one of more than 50 shareholders) is wrong.
McFarlane seems to forget that, during his time in government, private clinics experienced their biggest growth in history. At trial, it will become clear that the NDP government wisely supported the development of Cambie. We increased access for patients, including injured workers. Our founders believed we would help improve the public system, which they have always supported, having donated well over $100 million to public health care.
Like other supporters of the status quo, McFarlane seems to ignore the fact that six of the seven plaintiffs in our case were patients who suffered under the current system. Sadly, two (cancer sufferers) died during the very long delay in getting to trial. Another is paralyzed for life. It is deliberately deceptive to ignore their participation.
No wonder McFarlane wrote: “I don’t want to take up the constitutional issue here.” He previously described the ruling of the Supreme Court of Canada in Chaoulli (which stated patients were suffering and dying on wait lists) as “judicial intemperance.”
There were no such accusations when the same court granted prisoners the right to vote, or struck down laws that discriminated against homosexuality, abortion rights, safe-injection sites and assisted dying.
It is the ultimate irony for McFarlane to state: “The main reason we have long wait times is that our training facilities don’t turn out enough physicians to meet demand.”
His 1990s B.C. government cut back medical-school intake based on the false premise of too many doctors. It is illuminating, indeed, to now lament the shortage of doctors. In that era, hospital-based nursing schools were also closed.
The assertion that diverting patients to private clinics lengthens wait times is ludicrous.
Each year, more than 60,000 patients are treated there and removed from public wait lists. The government contracts out to these clinics because they improve access. The NDP of McFarlane’s era also contracted out services, but chose to send patients to private facilities in Seattle rather than in Canada.
Currently, the longest waits are in my field of orthopedic surgery. Public hospitals cannot open operating rooms because government won’t fund them.
There are 178 qualified and available young Canadian orthopedic surgeons who are anxious and willing to treat patients. The government won’t let them.
To describe a citizen’s rights to make decisions and choices regarding their own bodily health and integrity as “pernicious” is consistent with the belief that governments should rule, not serve. McFarlane appears to support authoritarian government control. In a 2015 column in the Times Colonist, he opined that scientists should not joust in public with their “political masters.”
I have news for him. Politicians are here to serve us, and are not our masters.
The Canadian charter is there to guard against the type of arrogance that McFarlane’s style of government wishes to inflict on people. To quote Ayn Rand: “The government was set to protect man from criminals, and the constitution was written to protect man from the government.”
Our federal and provincial health ministers recently cited the Commonwealth Fund, which ranks Canada’s health system 10th of 11 developed countries (only the U.S. was worse). In hospital and physician services, Canada has created a de facto government monopoly.
Is it wrong to learn from the experiences of better performing countries?
Monopolies do not serve consumers well, and hybrid systems elsewhere outperform Canada in cost, quality and access.
McFarlane wrote there is a Nobel Prize in economics waiting for anyone who proves our arguments correct. I look forward to the Nobel Prize award ceremonies. In my acceptance remarks, I will personally acknowledge McFarlane for his nomination.
Dr. Brian Day is the medical director of the Cambie Surgery Centre in Vancouver.
