Physicians Say Change in Government Could Hurt Health Care
Wednesday, May 8, 2013 @ 5:40 PM
Prince George, B.C.- Four prominent physicians in Prince George have opted to show their political stripes in order to call attention to health care in the North.
Standing at centre ice at the CN Centre, the very same spot where a stage had been set up for the Health Care rally in June of 2000, the physicians ( Dr.s’ Bert Kelly,. Bill Simpson, Lorrie Cook and Denise MacLeod ) outlined a prescription for the delivery of health care in this region, simply put, they don’t want people to forget the days when the NDP were in charge.
“I remember the 90’s” says Dr. Bert Kelly, “During the course of the Liberal reign, we have managed to complete several projects, the medical school project, the Cancer Centre, we did upgrade the Hospital and made it a Univeristy teaching hospital we have been able to recruit and retain physicians as never before and we have got enough training programs now to staff the programs.”
Dr. Bill Simpson harkens back to the days when health care services were, in his words “imploding”. “Despite going to two different NDP Health Ministers, we got absolutely zero response in fact, I can remember Paul Ramsey laughing and saying it doesn’t matter if a few surgeons leave we’ll just get some more, so they just showed a complete lack of understanding.”
Simpson recalls a meeting with Mike Farnworth where the physicians requested a northern allowance of $50 thousand dollars to help recruit specialists. According to Simpson, Farnworth (the Minister of Health at the time) laughed and said “even for $50 thousand dollars I wouldn’t move to Prince George.” Dr. Simpson says back then, there was just one orthopaedic surgeon and just 4 general surgeons. Now, there are 7 orthopaedic surgeons and 9 general surgeons “Whatever has happened over the past few years has fixed the problem.”
Both Dr. Kelly and Dr. Simpson say the system still needs upgrading, both complain of having patients who are being forced to stay in less than desirable conditions, one patient is in a shower room, another is in a lounge. They worry that if there is change in government, their calls for expansion and upgrades will be ignored.
Dr. Kelly says he is very concerned that the future of health care has not been mentioned in this current election campaign, and feels the people of the north deserve to make it an issue “I have absolutely no reason to believe anything good in health care in the north can happen under an NDP government. I dealt with them in the 90’s, they were singularly unhelpful.” He worries the new learning centre, which has yet to be built, and other programs which have been promised could be cancelled if there is a change in government, “Will they (cancel them)? I don’t know.”
Comments
âWill they (cancel them)? I donât know.â
So the question goes out to Dix and the local NDP candidates and they will say in no way will they be cancelled …..
Then, if they get into power and they cancel, and the doctors will visit them those NDP MLAs too will get a chance to laugh as the previous ones did …..
SSDD ……. ;-)
Scared you’re going to lose your precious grant money?
They are worried about paying higher taxes for people earning more than $150,000. There was a recent report that some physicians in BC are making above $1 Million per year.
10% of 1 Million is $100,000. So each doctor is going to pay $30,000 to $100,000 each year depending on salary. If you multiply it by 4 years, we are talking about 100,000$ to 400,000$ in additional taxes for each.
Show me the money …
“Scared you’re going to lose your precious grant money?”
I think that’s a pretty poor statement. I think at least two of them are retired doctors, but even if they weren’t retired, they don’t benefit from a better health system, we do.
It’s not their grant money, it’s ours.
I don’t think you have any right to attack their character.
The NDP’s strategy should be to expand the number of graduates in medical schools by at least 3-4 times so that we see the shortage of doctors are addressed by increasing the supply of graduates in medicine.
This will bring the cost of health care dramatically down and health care available to all. It is a supply and demand problem.
The bigger health care issue facing BC is the new federal transfer payments that will start dropping by approx 2 mil/yr when the funding formula is directly tied to per capita GDP…..where were the Liberals on this new federal health care funding policy? Not the fault of the NDP. It was the people of the North who advocated for a regional cancer centre ….it’s disingenuous to give the credit entirely to the BC Liberals… and UNBC was founded under the NDP….. Dr. Burt Kelly’s fear tactics are lame and insulting.
3-4 times more medical school graduates? After they graduate maybe they can buy their passports in bulk and save money.
Univ care to break down what some doctors make compared to hours worked, skill level etc.
Univ how about the bloated health care administration. Northern health even has a dedicated feel good person for administration.
One of them was my doctor and remember him being a very condescending doctor, and if two of the doctors are retired, this doesn’t hold much weight with me. How about we ask nurses and front line workers who will hurt healthcare? If you want a better health outcome – trying addressing the worst child poverty rate in Canada.
We have a problem of shortage of medical doctors. When I proposed here on this site to introduce financial incentives to attract medical doctors to the north in the short term, I also discussed other long term solutions.
You want creative solutions to address the problems of health care? Vote NDP so that they bring some creative persons, managing the health care and managing our universities. One of the reasons we are in this mess is because university drop-outs like Shirley Bond and Christy Clark are running the show in Victoria.
The argument that we should increase the supply of graduates makes some sense.
We can’t be the only jurisdiction to do it though. Doctors are very mobile. We can’t expect that they will work for half the price to stay in BC… Some will, but most won’t. If every jurisdiction trained more, it might just work though. Good luck with that though.
If BC is the only area to increase medical school graduates and we decide to pay them quite a bit less, we’ll spend a fortune training them, just to have them leave.
We can pour several thousand liters of water in a little backyard fish pond and it will increase the water level. If we pour several thousand liters of water in West Lake it won’t make much of a difference at all.
We don’t live in a little backyard pond–it’s a big lake out there.
I think the NDP attitude of stick it to the doctors is the very reason that so many left during the NDP’s last reign.
During the election campaign for their first term the NDP promised Mike Harcourt) that PG would be the site of a Cancer Clinic! What happened? Everybody knows that when they got in the new cancer clinic was built in Kelowna instead! A broken promise and a slap in the face of PG? Certainly! During the NDP decades there were people expiring in ambulances waiting to get into Emergency.
Doctors curtailed their working hours because there wasn’t enough money to pay them, and so forth.
Doctors that are paid with taxdollars campaigning for the Liberals are using our taxpayer funded building for political purposes. Did they pay rent?
We really don’t need these numbers of science and engineering PhD graduates that we are training in our universities and we can easily import them as immigrants.
We can train more medical specialists and less PhDs by the PhD research grants that we pay for training PhDs. It is very simple ….
We have health care problem. But the real problem that we have is the health of our government and its institutions which are failing one by one to corruption and mismanagement.
The number one priority in this election should be the health of the BC government and its failing organs. We should give NDP the chance to make it right.
Folks, we don’t have any other option.
Some people have no shame. To say the doctors’ pleas are a little disingenuous would be an understatement. In fact, I find it repugnant that they would use their cachet in this manner. The state of health care in Prince George has more to do with quid pro quo and lifestyle choices than it does with the governing party. They don’t have a problem attracting doctors to the Okanagan or the lower mainland. I lived in Vernon for a while and had no problem getting quality health care there. Vernon has half the population of PG does and it had 3 walk-in clinics when I lived there.
No, I think this plea is about good old fashioned greed and income taxes. Thanks for outing yourself in public. I’m glad to see the Liberals are scared and reaching out to their rich friends though. They know the writing is on the wall, the gravy train is over for them and their buddies and it’s a bitter pill to swallow. All I have to say is welcome to the world of the rest of us you ignorant selfish [insert plural expletive here].
Many years ago a plastic surgeon told me he only got a half a day a week to work in and use the hospital. Sure hope things will change with tricky Dix in charge.
The doctors and their union (CMA)have always been against medicare. Case in point,their actions when the “Godless Marxists” in Saskatchewan under Tommy Douglas dared to bring in Medicare. I guess they would like to able to charge whatever they like for their services and the hell with those who can’t afford their brand of medical care. If they are making the big bucks then be prepared to pay your fair share of taxes. There were many Drs. in this community that supplied money to the ‘Dump Ramsay” campaign a few years back. One Dr. stood out from the rest and didn’t buy all the political crap that is dished out. His name was Galt Wilson, a fine doctor and a fine person.
The liberals have cut back on operating times for doctors. They have raised MSP every year, they cant. Trusted and neither can these doctors it seems..
Looks like the silly season is upon us. The Libs must be running scared and are calling in their markers. As well as the Drs. we have Stockwell Day and Jay Hill out beating the grass for Crispy. I received a call from Stockwell the other day wanting me to participate in a telephone “Town Meeting” so I could be informed of all the good that Crispy has done. I’m half expecting to see Stockwell coming up the Fraser River on a seado in his wet suit to educate us rubes up here. Good luck with that Stockwell.
Univ nailed it. 100% correct.
I think that we can all agree that these doctors have committed suicide. Our new masters will not forget what they’ve done. They will hold all doctors responsible…
Tell me it’s not true.
I beg to differ, icicle, I have every right in the world to attack the character of a profession. I didn’t single out anyone. A lot of doctors use grant money to further their credentials at our expense, and they see that possibly being curtailed somewhat if the libs are booted.
Plenty O’ Left Wing Nut Jobs anging out here Ben!
It’s not true!
“A lot of doctors use grant money to further their credentials at our expense”
Someone other than the doctors decided to provide the grant money to do exactly that, to further the credentials of that and many other vocations and professions so that we have access to the level of quality we need. It is the way the system works no matter who is in government.
Researchers with PhDs working on their often 6 year post doc work at specialty clinics such as the Montreal Neurological Institute make around $40,000/year. Every cent of that is grant money and their research helps with improving the conditions of altzheimer patients, brain and spinal cord tumour patients etc.
Who in their right mind would object to that? A chemist working to improve paper qulity at Canfor would not accept that sort of pay ……. and, by the way, there is grant money for that kind of work as well.
Some of the Doctors in this town must be doing alright. Some only work 13 and 14 hours per week judging by the hours on their door. Sounds like more desparation on the Liberal side and more fear-mongering. Time to pull out all the stops, i guess.
“…when the “Godless Marxists” in Saskatchewan under Tommy Douglas dared to bring in Medicare.”
THET didn’t bring it in! Lester Pearson’s Liberal minority government needed the votes of the “Godless Marxists” to stay in power and as they were already looking at the concept of universal healthcare they did the correct political thing and gave in.
One way or the other, it turned out to be a good idea, like pensions at age 65 which were already in place in some other countries.
The difference between the public health care system and private clinics is no doubt the cause of rising healthcare costs.
Private healthcare for cataract surgery in Kelowna. Prior surgery appointment on a Friday about 2 hours. Surgery on the following Monday, about 2 hours. Check up Tuesday morning about 1 hour. Cost $1500.00
Public healthcare system in PG. Request appointment. Appointment scheduled 7 months later. Appointment takes about 2 hours. Pictures of eyes required. Scheduled by hospital at some time in the future. Next appointment scheduled 5 months after initial appointment. Surgery 7 – 8 months after second appointment. Total time 12 – 14 months.
Given the additional appointment required, pics at hospital it is extremely doubtful the cost under the public system is less costly than the private clinic.
About time the gov’t looked at efficiencies developed in private healthcare system and applied them to the public system. It just does not make sense that a private clinic can schedule appointment, and have surgery in less than 1 week and the public system takes over 1 year for the same procedure and no doubt the cost is in excess of the private clinic.
I am curious. Did they rent the CN Center for this political announcement? I sure hope so as us local taxpayers could sure use the extra money to offset the operational costs.
Or did our mayor grant them free access so they could use the facility for free as a backdrop to help their political friends?
Posted by: Harbinger on May 8 2013 8:47 PM
Many years ago a plastic surgeon told me he only got a half a day a week to work in and use the hospital. Sure hope things will change with tricky Dix in charge.
————————————–
Surgeons only get the time that alloted to to them as they apply for time … your Plastic friend however I bet is unwilling to perform procedures in Quesnel at GR Baker hospital … where the OR sits mostly empty because docs are not willing to travel to another hospital.
I have seen my Canadian students wanting to pursue medical school but couldn’t qualify for the small number of seats available in Prince George or in Canada and even traveling to the USA to study it with major costs for them.
We need to provide enough seats in our universities so that our students are not forced to study medicine in the USA.
I want to see non-partisan petitions by Doctors in Prince George to expand the education of medical students in BC so more students from Prince George can study in Canada.
We also need transfer programs for immigrants who practice medicine in their home countries. The NDP should look at the programs in Australia for attracting immigrant doctors. I have seen doctors immigrating to BC who couldn’t practice here after years of residency but they went to Australia and started practicing there from day one, based on their experience in Canada!
Houston, we have a problem …
and we need a change for the better and as a non medical doctor I am petitioning for a change in this election …
univ is right. Part of the problem is the limited number of seats available either in Prince George, or in the Province.
BOTTOM LINE., The medical association of BC, or whatever their name is, is the body that certifies doctors in the Province.
They are not going to allow a large number of Doctors to practice, because more doctors means less income. So you can rest assured that the shortage will continue.
Time to wake up and smell the roses.
Comments for this article are closed.