Canada needs a new Health Accord! Please share this video widely. #Stand4Medicare! http://youtu.be/VNT7CWK4FN0
Our health care system needs your help. If you like the fact we have a universal health care system, then we need you to write to our MP and tell him that you want to Federal Government to create a new Health Accord that benefits everyone, not just the people who can afford it.
His email addresses are: dreese@parl.gc.ca and Dreese1@parl.gc.ca
To put pressure on our Provincial government, email: reddeer.north@assembly.ab.ca and reddeer.south@assembly.ab.ca
Council of Canadians, Red Deer and Area 
I am not sure where you are getting your info, but good topic.
I needs to spend some time learning more or understanding more.
Thanks for excellent info I was looking for this info for
my mission.
Hello, Ken ….
Shared just in case you didn’t have time to listen to the CBC’s `The Current’ and the comments of the three Doctors, (Bell, Ouellet and Rachlis). There’s much to be said about some of the comments in particular those of Doctor Ouellet (Senior Fellow at the Fraser Institute and Doctor Bell) – the main one being that the patient is not part of the healthcare system and a need to change the Canadian Healthcare Act. Is that to subsidize the privatization process that one might believe it should normally stand on its own by way of business efficiency given that human beings are then considered business commodities? Profit determination surely should not come from the public coffers ….
When Anna Marie Tremonti posed the question about resources being perceived in short supply how can we be using existing resources for `Medical Tourism’ but then we’re told by Doctor Bell that the ORs only have a 40 percent usage factor. It seems somewhat logical to ask where do the other short supply resources come from if they’re in short supply. This is akin to the Alberta government under Premier Klein blowing up the Calgary General Hospital while shutting down the Grace and Holy Cross Hospitals and then wondering why there is a shortage of beds.
Indeed the `Goebells Effect’ is in vogue and the net result will be disastrous for our country as a whole. Healthcare in my view reflects the culture of a country and it took a great man like Tommy Douglas to make us aware of that. For those with wealth who want access to their individual healthcare needs – let them have it but don’t under any circumstances change our healthcare system to a publicly supported two-tier system under the pretense that we’ve found a solution to our perceived financial problems and that we’re doing it for the love of our fellow man. However, it may well be too late to stop the `Goebells Effect’ given what people don’t seem to know or care about our healthcare system and politicians frequently turn to micro short term financial solutions with little understanding of long term related macro healthcare problems ….
There’s so much more that could be said about this matter but I’ll leave it there – have a look if you have a moment …
hjb
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Could medical tourism be the golden ticket for Canadian hospitals?
Thursday, April 3, 2014 | Categories: Canadian, Episodes, Health | 0
Could medical tourism be the golden ticket for Canadian hospitals?
Major Canadian hospitals have always made space for humanitarian medical and surgical help for those from beyond our borders. Today, we’re asking about those who also create a revenue stream through private treatments from wealthy or well-insured foreign patients. A good way to raise cash for hospitals? Or the road to two-tiered health care?
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Could medical tourism be the golden ticket for Canadian hospitals?
Thursday, April 3, 2014 | Categories: Canadian , Episodes , Health 0
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre approved a plan for an
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre approved a plan for an “international patient program” in order to raise revenue. Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto is advertising on their website for people from other countries, who can afford it, to come have treatment at their Hospital. CP/Aaron Vincent Elkaim
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Major Canadian hospitals have always made space for humanitarian medical and surgical help for those from beyond our borders. Today, we’re asking about those who also create a revenue stream through private treatments from wealthy or well-insured foreign patients. A good way to raise cash for hospitals? Or the road to two-tiered health care?
When we talk about medical tourism in this country, most people assume we’re talking about Canadian patients — not providers. And while it is true that some Canadians travel abroad because of long wait times or to get access to specialists and new technology… some hospitals in Canada have quietly been offering care to foreign patients — for a price.
This week, Globe and Mail health reporter Kelly Grant reported that Toronto’s Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre approved a plan for an “international patient program” in order to raise revenue. Other hospitals in Ontario have also been treating foreign patients for a fee, but reporter Kelly Grant says this new pilot program at Sunnybrook features one key difference.
“I suppose the big difference would be in how the two hospitals frame it. When I spoke with the chief administrative officer at Sunnybrook, he was fairly forthcoming when I asked, ‘What’s different here?’ He said, ‘The difference is that we are actively soliciting patients with an eye to raising revenue.’ UHN president Bob Bell insisted that they don’t actively solicit although they are raising a fair amount of money doing this regardless.”
Globe and Mail Health Reporter Kelly Grant
Bob Bell is the President & CEO of University Health Network which includes Toronto General Hospital, Toronto Western Hospital, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, and the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. We have reached him at his office in Toronto.
The Current invited a spokesperson from Sunnybrook, including the Chair of its Board of Directors to talk to us, but it declined.
Many hospitals in other countries provide health care to foreign patients as a means to raise their profile and revenue. One study found Britain’s National Health Service earned the equivalent of about $65 million Canadian in 2010 from medical tourists. Some of those patients could have been from Canada.
According to the Fraser Institute, more than $46,000 left the country to seek care in 2011. Despite it’s growing popularity, experts are spilt on whether Canada should become a destination for medical tourism.
Dr. Michael Rachlis is a health policy analyst and he was in Toronto.
Dr. Robert Ouellet is a radiologist, former president of the Canadian Medical Association and a senior fellow with the Fraser Institute. He was in Miami, Florida.
What do you think? Should Canada become a destination for medical tourism?
Tweet us @thecurrentcbc. Or e-mail us through our website. Find us on Facebook. Call us toll-free at 1 877 287 7366.
And as always if you missed anything on The Current, grab a podcast.
This segment was produced by The Current’s Dawna Dingwall and Sujata Berry.
Related Links
Toronto hospital courts wealthy ‘medical tourists’ – Globe & Mail
Toronto hospitals seek more medical tourists – The Toronto Star
Medical tourism controls needed, surgeon says – CBC News
Go Public: Medical tourism gone wrong – CBC Radio
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