The Medicare creed, “equal access to everyone regardless of ability to pay”, while noble in conception, is simply not delivering proper or timely care in too many cases. Here are a few examples:

seven days and seven nights

• Day 1. A retired Accountant, known to me personally, began bleeding per urethra in April, 2007 and went to the local hospital Emergency Department. He was told that he should be admitted but, as there was no bed, a bladder catheter was inserted and he was sent home. His wife, a lay person with no nursing or medical training, was told to monitor the bleeding.

• Day 2. Next day the catheter became blocked and his wife drove him back to Emergency. The catheter was replaced with a larger size and, as there was still no bed, he was sent home with instructions for his wife to continue monitoring. At 11pm that night the catheter blocked again. He returned to Emergency where the catheter was replaced by larger size again. The Nurses said he should really be kept in but there was still no bed and he was sent home once more.

• Day 3. The catheter blocked again at noon. Back to Emergency – another larger catheter inserted. During these visits various attempts were made to have the patient seen by a Urologist but they couldn’t “get hold of him – he’s rushed off his feet.”

• Day 4. The catheter blocked again. Back to Emergency. Catheter irrigated and sent home.

• Day 5. Catheter blocked. Back to Emergency. This time ……“we’re keeping you in but there’s still no bed so we’ll have to keep you on the stretcher trolley in the hallway.” An intravenous infusion was set up and he was finally seen by the Urologist and admitted, but to a broom cupboard, as this was the only available accommodation. “We’d like to operate as soon as possible so we’ll keep you NPO (Nothing By Mouth) until we can fit you in between emergencies.”

• Day 6. “We’ll try and operate to-day.” The entire day went by – still NPO – and at 11pm he was told “it will be to-night for sure.” He was taken to the OR and placed on the Operating Table. The Urologist and the Anaesthetist were then called away to an emergency and the patient was kept on the Operating Table until 2AM (on Day 7) when he was finally operated on.

So, forty years after it was introduced, this is Medicare in Canada, the “best in the world” according to numerous politicians and pundits.

Would defenders of State Medicine care to go through what this man went through? Would they be content to just sit by and see a relative, say their father, go through it if they had a choice – a private option, for example?

“Equal access to everyone regardless of ability to pay” – to a broom cupboard?

Saskatoon Man Opts for Hip Surgery Overseas

CBC News, September 4, 2007.

Faced with long waits for hip surgery, some people in Saskatchewan (the home of Medicare) are traveling the globe and spending thousands of dollars for a quicker option. Saskatoon’s Fritz Schumann, age 49, traveled to India in the Spring to have a “hip resurfacing” operation, an alternative to a hip replacement. Now, the father of young children is back to his active health style and back at work as a Veterinarian.

It is a big change from last Fall, when he was in constant pain and had to use a cane. That’s when he found that the Saskatoon Health Region does not do hip resurfacing. Getting the operation done in another province might mean a three year wait.

Instead, he decided to spend $14,000 to go to India and have the procedure done in five weeks. Schumann says he is glad he made the decision he did.

“I did not have a bit of pain since I woke up from surgery.” He said, “Everyday I am happy and smiling. I can’t really believe I can walk this well.”

The province says it is targeting orthopaedic wait lists and has allocated extra money this year for knee and hip replacement.

Patient’s Choice: Wait 14 weeks or pay $5,000

Globe and Mail. 31 January, 2007

Branislav Djukic, a 51 year old cab driver from Ontario was faced with this choice: wait more than 14 weeks for cancer surgery or travel outside Canada and buy the lifesaving operation he could not receive here soon enough. He decided to return to the former Yugoslavia, a place which he had fled in 1995 in order to seek a better life in Canada. In Belgrade, he had surgery for cancer in the left kidney at a cost of $5,000.

The Ontario government was ordered to reimburse the cost of the operation after the Review Board ruled that the wait Mr. Djukic faced was too long. “I felt very bad. I couldn’t believe that in a rich country, you had to wait so long.” His daughter, Maja Djukic, who launched the appeal, said she was stunned when her father was left to languish in a lengthy queue. “Canada prides itself in being one of the best countries in the world to live and this was one of the reasons we came here.”

Panel orders Ontario to pay for hip surgery

Globe and Mail. 3 February, 2007

When high-school teacher Bob McDonnell, with an arthritic hip condition, faced a staggering 2 ½ year wait for hip replacement surgery in Ontario he went to India – to the Apollo Specialty Hospital in Chennai, South East India. There he received hip resurfacing surgery - “first-rate care at a Third World price.”

The Ontario government has been ordered to reimburse his medical costs after the Review Board ruled that he not only faced a delay but also that he might not ever have been able to obtain hip-resurfacing surgery here. Hip resurfacing surgery, which preserves more bone than hip replacement, is performed in Canada but not nearly as often as hip replacement. In Mr. McDonnell’s case he could obtain neither operation in a timely manner and, faced with an inordinately long wait, he elected to go to India.

“It’s ridiculous that you have to go somewhere else for this treatment” said the 53 year old biology and science teacher on hearing that he had won his case. “I wasn’t prepared to sit by and get worse and worse.”

On the telephone from Chennai, India, the orthopaedic surgeon who operated on him, Dr. Vijay Bose, said he operates on five Canadians a month – some of whom face long waits at home. The danger of waiting too long in a queue for hip surfacing surgery “is that the bone can become so damaged there won’t be enough bone to do the procedure.”