Thousands of surgeries may be cut in Canada due to funding

[GabonX]

Vancouver patients needing neurosurgery, treatment for vascular diseases and other medically necessary procedures can expect to wait longer for care, NDP health critic Adrian Dix said Monday.

Dix said a Vancouver Coastal Health Authority document shows it is considering chopping more than 6,000 surgeries in an effort to make up for a dramatic budgetary shortfall that could reach $200 million.

“This hasn’t been announced by the health authority … but these cuts are coming,” Dix said, citing figures gleaned from a leaked executive summary of “proposed VCH surgical reductions.”

The health authority confirmed the document is genuine, but said it represents ideas only.

“It is a planning document. It has not been approved or implemented,” said spokeswoman Anna Marie D’Angelo.

Dr. Brian Brodie, president of the BC Medical Association, called the proposed surgical cuts “a nightmare.”

“Why would you begin your cost-cutting measures on medically necessary surgery? I just can’t think of a worse place,” Brodie said.

According to the leaked document, Vancouver Coastal — which oversees the budget for Vancouver General and St. Paul’s hospitals, among other health-care facilities — is looking to close nearly a quarter of its operating rooms starting in September and to cut 6,250 surgeries, including 24 per cent of cases scheduled from September to March and 10 per cent of all medically necessary elective procedures this fiscal year.

The plan proposes cutbacks to neurosurgery, ophthalmology, vascular surgery, and 11 other specialized areas.

As many of 112 full-time jobs — including 13 anesthesiologist positions — would be affected by the reductions, the document says.

“Clearly this will impact the capacity of the health-care system to provide care, not just now but in the future,” Dix said.

Further reductions in surgeries are scheduled during the Olympics, when the health authority plans to close approximately a third of its operating rooms.

Two weeks ago, Dix released a Fraser Health Authority draft communications plan listing proposed clinical care cuts, including a 10-per-cent cut in elective surgeries and longer waits for MRI scans.

The move comes after the province acknowledged all health authorities together will be forced to cut staff, limit some services and increase fees to find $360 million in savings during the current fiscal year.

In all, Fraser Health is looking at a $160-million funding shortfall.

D’Angelo said Vancouver Coastal’s deficit is closer to $90 million — almost a third of which ($23 million) has already been absorbed through reductions in non-clinical administration efficiencies.

Vancouver Coastal performed 67,000 surgeries last year, an increase of 6,500 surgeries over 2007.

“What has now happened is that now our wait times are about 25 per cent lower than the provincial average,” D’Angelo said. “We have put a dent in that wait list.”

Brodie acknowledged surgical waiting times have dropped significantly in recent years, particularly for patients needing hip and joint replacements.

He said the proposed cuts threaten those advancements.

“It sounds like we are going backwards here,” he said.

Total health spending in British Columbia was $15.7 billion this year, up about four per cent over last year’s total of 15.1 billion, according to figures provided by the ministry of health.

Health Minister Kevin Falcon was unavailable for comment Monday on the proposed health-care cuts. A ministry spokesman said Falcon is away on his honeymoon until the end of August.

Elsewhere in British Columbia, the province will look to replace the head of the Interior Health Authority, Murray Ramsden, after he announced he will step down at the end of the year.

Ramsden has said his decision to retire is not related to financial problems faced by the authority.

http://www.vancouversun.com/story_print ... 06&sponsor

[hecter]

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[GabonX]

Maybe next time you can copy something interesting

Relevant perhaps?

[Timminz]

Vancouver patients needing neurosurgery, treatment for vascular diseases and other medically necessary procedures can expect to wait longer for care, NDP health critic Adrian Dix said Monday.

Dix said a Vancouver Coastal Health Authority document shows it is considering chopping more than 6,000 surgeries in an effort to make up for a dramatic budgetary shortfall that could reach $200 million.

“This hasn’t been announced by the health authority … but these cuts are coming,” Dix said, citing figures gleaned from a leaked executive summary of “proposed VCH surgical reductions.”

I find this, coming from you, hilarious. The NDP (New Democratic Party) is Canada's major lefty party. In this article they are lambasting the Conservative (party name, and political leaning) government for cutting government funding to health care. That's right. these surgeries may be cut, BECAUSE THE GOVERNMENT IS SPENDING LESS MONEY ON HEALTH CARE. By posting this article, you seem to be saying that reducing government funding of health care is bad, because surgeries will be reduced (duh!). Not quite the point I suspect you were going for.

If this was the first post I'd ever seen from you, I would have thought you were a leftist. Seeing as I know better than that, it seems that you simply have no idea what this article is actually about.

Bravo!

[GabonX]

Believe it or not I am a leftist. Conservatives are the true liberals these days as we seek to conserve the foundations of liberty that our nation was founded upon. Unfortunately the terms "leftist" and "liberal" have been bastardized by the so called Progressive movement which seems to believe that it is ok to impede on personal freedoms so long as everyone is equally oppressed.

What this article demonstrates is that people in Canada have become dependant on a system that cannot be guaranteed to meet their needs.

In fact it is likely that it will not and many people in the United States are concerned that they will be forced into a similar predicimant.

[hecter]

Maybe next time you can copy something interesting

Relevant perhaps?

Well, you see, you just went and copied and pasted some random article, adding nothing in terms of content or commentary. It wasn't relevant to anything.

What this article demonstrates is that people in Canada have become dependant on a system that cannot be guaranteed to meet their needs.

In fact it is likely that it will not and many people in the United States concerned that they will be forced into a similar predicimant.

Cannot be guaranteed to meet our needs? I've never had any issues receiving treatment. I got really sick once, so I went to the hospital and they got me nice and fixed up. My grandpa had a stroke, so, into the ambulance he went, and was hospitalized for a couple months. Mom broke her toe, so she went to the hospital to get it fixed up. I broke out in hives, so I went to my family doctor and got some cream to fix it up. My girlfriend needed birth control pills, so we went to the free clinic and got her some. My great-grandfather recently underwent some serious heart surgery, and my grandfather, shortly after I was born, had something crazy like a quadruple bypass. The big issues, in my area at least, is that it can be difficult to get family doctors. But any needed treatment, whether it be AIDS medication or broken bones or serious surgeries, are perfectly accessible to anybody through hospitals and clinics.

Saying that our health care system cannot meet our needs is just plain bullshit. This article says that there might be budget cuts that would result in increased waiting lists. Nothing more.

[Titanic]

Believe it or not I am a leftist. Conservatives are the true liberals these days as we seek to conserve the foundations of liberty that our nation was founded upon. Unfortunately the terms "leftist" and "liberal" have been bastardized by the so called Progressive movement which seems to believe that it is ok to impede on personal freedoms so long as everyone is equally oppressed.

What this article demonstrates is that people in Canada have become dependant on a system that cannot be guaranteed to meet their needs.

In fact it is likely that it will not and many people in the United States are concerned that they will be forced into a similar predicimant.

Ye, its their fault that few people know what left-wing politics or liberal means, not at all to do with the Republicans and conservatives..

[WARZONE123]

As a Canadian living in the general vicinity of where this story takes place I say "well put". But having read GabonX's past posts and contributions on the American's push for universal healthcare I can say that i believe GabonX is trying to bring to light the problems of universal healthcare. The healthcare system in Canada has it's flaws and if the USA is considering a similar system they should consider what is wrong and how to avoid funding shortfalls, doctor's leaving for other countries etc. Maybe the the USA can take it's blinders off and learn from it's neighbour to the North that has seen that, done that, and is trying to fix that... but I won't hold my breath.

Personally I believe in universal healthcare - it should be a basic human right to have free medical attention. But having grown up and experienced some of the issues pertaining to funding and doctor availability I also hold the opinion that the Canadian healthcare system needs an overhaul. With Canada's much smaller population base - and less taxable income and a already overtaxed population this issue has been going on for YEARS. Come elections it is always a political hot topic and politicians cater to demographics that rely on healthcare (ie. elderly and the disabled) only to continue funding cuts.

I would hazard a general opinion that I believe all Canadians share; "I'm taxed beyond belief yet there are still problems with funding and hiring of health professionals? How can that be?" The USA has over 9 times the population of Canada and more special interest groups than mentionable... good luck making them all happy.

Hey Stateside look North and try to learn something and good luck on whatever path you choose...

[Phatscotty]

and when compared to the USA, Prostate cancer mortality is 604 percent higher in the UK and 457 percent higher in Norway. interesting.

[thegreekdog]

Please... the NDP is NOT a lefty party... when will you Canadians learn that your political identifiers just don't apply on a worldwide basis. The NDP is definitely right of center... etc., etc.

[insert criticism of Canadians as ignorant fools working at Tim Horton's, then sign "SultanofSurreal"]

[thegreekdog]

it should be a basic human right to have free medical attention

Sorry to take this out of the entirety of the post, but I always find this reasoning fascinating. First, I'm going to assume "free medical attention" means not just emergency care, but everything else; because, frankly, if free medical attention is emergency care, we have that already here in the states (I get shot in the arm, I don't have health insurance, I go the emergency room, I get treated, someone else picks up the tab).

In any event, the real point of this is two fold: First, I believe that all people should have access to medical care. Not "free" medical care, because medical care isn't free. Someone has to pay for it (whether in money or services). Second, I don't believe medical care is a "basic human right" because you have to take something away from someone else to give a person medical care (either money or services). A basic human right doesn't really work that way. A basic human right (like the right to free speech for example) is something that doesn't take from someone else. One just has an innate right to free speech.

[Timminz]

Please... the NDP is NOT a lefty party... when will you Canadians learn that your political identifiers just don't apply on a worldwide basis. The NDP is definitely right of center... etc., etc.

At first I thought you were serious about this comment. Then I realized that you'd have to be an idiot to actually think that, and I know you're not an idiot.

I see your "No U!", and raise you a, "Ya? So?"

[2dimes]

I doubt I really want to bother typing a bunch of things to promtly have them skimmed missunderstood and ignored but...

Alberta (the provence next to B.C,) health in the 1970s was really great. Now it's become all about budgets etc. Canadians no longer care enough about other people to want a system that functions the way it used to. It now runs at the least expensive level possible to maintain barely acceptable service.

I just went to the hospital this evening because my Grandma fits the profile of someone that is allowed to be in the hospital here now days.

You have to either be unable to get out of the bed to use the toilet, waiting for surgery or about to die.