Queue Jumping for a Fee

Contrary to assertions in Pamela Fayerman's June 16th article in the Vancouver Sun and the subsequent editorial on June 17th, the private eye clinic on the North Shore is an example of what should not happen in any contracting out. Patients visiting the clinic were offered the opportunity to wait for just days rather than months for their cataract operation if they were willing to make substantial payments for an uninsured related procedure.

I can produce three witnesses to verify the queue jumping, and I am sure that a public appeal could produce more. The first witness was told that it would take six months to have his eye done but that a quicker option was available. After he agreed to pay $1,750, his eye was done four days later. The second witness accompanied the first and sat in the waiting room during the operation. During that time she spoke with patients who were waiting for their surgery which had been expedited as the result of paying up front. The third witness, my wife, had the same offer made about three years ago. She declined the expedited surgery but engaged in a lengthy discussion with the doctor who admitted that his father also objected to what he was doing. They got around the rules by performing an uninsured procedure which just so happened to make it convenient to also do the cataract at the same time.

Health Minister Collin Hansen and the health authorities get away with turning a blind eye to the abuse by saying that they cannot investigate if no patient comes forward with a complaint. Put yourself in the position of a patient who is going blind as vision disappears because of the clouding of a lens. Even patients like my wife who opted to wait do not want to antagonize the physician who will ultimately perform the procedure and provide postoperative care. Doctors get away with accepting payments for queue jumping, disguised as payments for related uninsured services, without any complaints from their patients because there is not an equal balance of power between those who need surgeries and those who provide them. It is the responsibility of government to correct that imbalance, something that is unlikely to happen when more procedures are privatized and the fifth estate is turned into a cheerleader.

I mentioned the queue jumping in an article published on StrategicThoughts.com on June 12th and I repeated it during my weekly debate on CKNW on June 13th. I was then contacted by a reporter for the Vancouver Province about the clinic. It took until June 18th before the Province finally published a weak-kneed article on the clinic. The Vancouver Province sat on the story for a week while the Vancouver Sun ran a propaganda piece (followed by an editorial) which could have been written by the health authority's media flack. The provincial government must be pleased that the Sun reporter and editorial board was duped into repeating its line. In spite of evidence that queue jumping for a substantial fee was occurring, the CanWest empire showed signs of turning a blind eye to the truth.