An oncologist in Canada goes off:
Calling it an “absolute disgrace,” the head of a cancer group says Ontario’s restricted access to PET scans is not only forcing some medical residents to relocate for training but it is also hampering patient care.“That’s an absolute disgrace coming from Ontario,” said James Gowing, a hematologist-oncologist based in Cambridge, Ont., and board chairman of the Cancer Advocacy Coalition of Canada.
“I’ve been embarrassed a number of times to tell people I’m from Ontario and this would be another one.”
Dr. Gowing’s comments follow a Globe and Mail story that revealed how the University of Western Ontario must send its nuclear-medicine residents to the United States and elsewhere for three months to train on a Positron Emission Tomography machine.
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{ 5 comments }
Hahahaha. Good.
Get what you pay for.
It’s time for NHS like systems to just come out and say “we can give you this level of care and no more. You’re on your own for the rest.” And call it a day.
“You’re on your own for the rest.”
Problem with that statement is that most of the NHS like systems (ie Canada and UK) have strict limitation on the practice of private fee-for-service medicine. Even here in the USA, under the nose of the US Constitution, we have some draconian limitations set by the federal government, such as the illegal 2-year opt-out window under Medicare, limiting balanced billling and private contracts between physicians and patients. The AMA should make that one of their priorities to repeal rather than spending all their energy on malpractice reform. I’m not holding my breath though…
Um…the problem is not the single payer system…it’s the strict restrictions placed on who can use PET.
It’s pretty obvious they just need to lessen the restrictions and access will improve, allowing them to train here.
Notice most other populous provinces don’t have the same problem? And yet it’s still written off as a problem of the single-payer system.
Rationed services IS a problem of single payer systems. You are correct that what needs to be done is to introduce more spending. Conversely, more private medicine can also solve the problem as well. Ideally, a combination of both would work the best.
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