"Provinces spend millions on U.S. healthcare"

[Guest Ian Wong]

Here's an interesting article, again from the Globe and Mail. I'd take some of these statements with a huge grain of salt; after all, even if the success rate for an operation is 1%, mathematically you'll still find some surgeon in the world who will perform it and get a good result...

 

Ian

UBC, Med 4

 

www.globeandmail.com/serv...emp/2/2/5/

 

<!--EZCODE BOLD START--> Provinces spend millions on U.S. care for patients<!--EZCODE BOLD END-->

By LISA PRIEST

Saturday, October 5, 2002

 

Tens of millions of dollars are being spent by provincial governments each year to quietly send patients to the United States for medical treatment because the care is unavailable in Canada or the waits are too long.

 

Documents obtained under the freedom of information law reveal that Ontario alone spent $67.4-million on preapproved U.S. medical treatment, including hospital and physician costs, from 1999 to 2002.

 

Other provinces reveal high figures as well. Quebec spent $25-million on radiation and cancer treatment from late 1999 to January of 2002; British Columbia spent $21.2-million from 1999 to 2002 in physician and hospital fees for preapproved, out-of-country treatments.

 

In addition, a growing number of Canadians are choosing to fund their own treatment in the U.S. when doctors have written them off or they are offered inferior care.

 

The main purpose of trips to the United States for an estimated 17,000 Canadians in 1998 was for medical treatment, according to Statistics Canada's most recent figures. That, according to Canadian Medical Association president Dana Hanson, is a "symptom that our system isn't addressing the needs of the population."

 

Some examples:

 

In Toronto, a surgeon opened, then closed 69-year-old Ian Abrams, saying the colon cancer that had spread to his liver was too advanced for surgery. Mr. Abrams went to M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Tex., and after paying more than $100,000 (U.S.) for an operation, is cancer free.

 

Robert Massicotte of Oakville, Ont., was told his death from prostate cancer was a certainty, but radiation and hormone treatment -- which would leave him impotent and with a bleeding rectum -- would buy him more time. Instead, he went to William Beaumont Hospital in Michigan for an innovative treatment with no side effects, paying some $40,000 (U.S.). Three years later, the 61-year-old is alive and had most of the money reimbursed.

 

The province would pay for an operation to remove a tumour from Allison Corbett's lung in Toronto, but it would leave the child a paraplegic with a permanent breathing tube. Instead, her parents took her to Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y., for a different surgery that left her able to run and walk like other children. The cost: $200,000 (U.S.) -- reimbursed after an appeal.

Toronto lawyer Richard Shekter is representing Mr. Abrams, the man who was essentially written off, before the Health Services Appeal and Review Board in an attempt to have him reimbursed.

 

"They will pay for your palliative care leading to inevitable death but they view life-saving procedures as inappropriate under our legislation," Mr. Shekter said. "There's a problem in funding that is truly epidemic."

 

Even Senator Michael Kirby, chairman of the Senate standing committee on social affairs, science and technology, recommended in an interim report that if patients can't get timely treatment in Canada, they should be sent to the United States.

 

Interviews with officials in every province and territory reveal that virtually all spend money on preapproved, out-of-country treatment, although they calculate their figures slightly differently.

 

To get such funding, the patient has to prove that the treatment is a valid one not available in Canada or, if it is, that a wait would cause death or irreversible damage.

 

Saskatchewan spent $1.1-million in preapproved out-of-country costs in 2001-2002, while Alberta shelled out $2.6-million during the same period. Nova Scotia spent $612,093 in 2001-2002 in hospital costs in the United States.

 

New Brunswick paid $239,616 (U.S.) on out-of-country medical treatment in 2001-2002; Nunavut spent $140,000 (U.S.) last year, while the Northwest Territories had no referrals outside of Canada.

 

Despite repeated requests, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Manitoba did not call back to provide figures.

 

The numbers do not include the cost of emergencies -- those cases where patients are on holiday on the United States and have a car accident or break a leg skiing.

 

In fact, if the emergencies are factored in, in addition to medical treatment funded through private insurance such as that obtained by snowbirds who spend the winter in the U.S. -- the number of Canadians receiving health care there jumps dramatically.

 

An estimated 166,000 Canadians received health services in the U.S. in 1998, Stats Canada says.

 

In Mr. Massicotte's case, he went to Michigan for brachytherapy, an advanced cancer treatment that involves putting radioactive seeds in or near the prostate tumour, after he was written off by Canadian doctors.

 

Many other patients, not content with Canadian treatment, research their cases on the Internet, where new treatments, names of top doctors and success rates are posted on U.S. hospital Web sites.

 

The CMA's Dr. Hanson said a commission is needed to track the wait times and availability of medical and diagnostic procedures to ensure patients get timely care.

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<threadtitle>"Family doctors moving from Manitoba to Kamloops"</threadtitle>

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<title>"Family doctors moving from Manitoba to Kamloops"</title>

<pagetext>Here's an interesting article from the Vancouver Sun regarding several family doctors who are leaving Manitoba, and what sounds like rural Manitoba at that, to work in Kamloops.

 

Ian

UBC, Med 4

 

www.canada.com/news/story...670C915FE}

 

<!--EZCODE BOLD START--> Family doctors moving from Manitoba to fill void in Kamloops, B.C.<!--EZCODE BOLD END-->

 

MICHELE YOUNG KAMLOOPS DAILY NEWS

Wednesday, October 02, 2002

 

KAMLOOPS, B.C. (CP) - About 5,000 Kamloops residents are three months away from having a family doctor.

 

The Thompson-Cariboo-Shuswap health service area has had confirmation from two Manitoba doctors and strong interest from at least four more in relocating to Kamloops, Dr. David Poulin said Wednesday.

 

On average, a family physician will take 1,200 to 1,500 patients, he said.

 

Thousands of city residents are without a regular doctor and Poulin, the area's medical services director, estimated there's a shortage of about 12 general practitioners.

 

The doctors, all from the same rural Manitoba community, actually approached the health service area about practising here, he said.

 

Unlike rural B.C. communities, Kamloops is listed as urban and cannot offer any recruitment bonuses.

 

Two of the doctors - a couple - have confirmed while another couple have to go through routine immigration processes before they can move here, he said.

 

All have to give three months notice in their current community.

 

Poulin said there is a dispute going on in the town, which he declined to name, saying he doesn't want the health service area tied up in the disagreement.

 

"We're hoping to get them here before the end of the year, if not the early part of the new year," he said.

 

A third couple from the same location in Manitoba are coming here this weekend to see the city, he said.

 

Poulin said he's also heard from a doctor in another B.C. community who wants to move to Kamloops and a pediatrician who has confirmed she's coming in February is married to a general practitioner.

 

Poulin said he also met recently with two doctors in the Lower Mainland who are originally from Kamloops and are interested in returning home to work in a primary-care clinic.

 

Dr. Paul Yanko, chief of the department of general practice at Royal Inland Hospital, said the news that an influx of family doctors is in the offing is a relief for patients and practitioners.

 

One general practitioner who just moved to Kamloops received 200 calls his first day at the office, before he had even announced he was taking patients, Yanko said.