Health-care privatization not an option - Health critic
Published Friday October 10th, 2008
Tory Health critic Claude Landry says Health Minister Mike Murphy is out of touch if he thinks exploring privatized health care in New Brunswick is a smart move.
In the past few months, Murphy has publicly pondered the idea of partnering with privately owned clinics for the delivery of public services such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) procedures or CT scans.
Landry said that would be a big mistake.
"Since he's been health minister, he's been floating these trial balloons," he said. "And he's saying to us, 'Look, I have a proposal on my desk,' and he's thinking (about it)."
Landry said he believes Murphy should participate in a consultation process with New Brunswick's health-care professionals before taking any action.
He said that would give him information more tailored to this province's needs.
"He's throwing anything on the wall and he hopes it sticks," Landry said.
"He's got good intentions, but will it work? I think he should sit with the physicians, with the New Brunswick Medical Society, and (discuss other solutions)."
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said Murphy declined to comment because he had no new information to offer.
Earlier this week, officials from the New Brunswick Health Coalition held a media conference to release findings from a national report called Eroding Public Medicare: Lessons and Consequences of For-Profit Health Care Across Canada.
Coalition co-chairwoman Debbie Lacelle said provinces such as Ontario, Alberta and Manitoba have experimented with privatized health care and are now trying to change back to a fully public system.
"If anything, (privatization) has increased wait-times and there's been less access to public services," she said.
Lacelle said Murphy's discussions on having privately owned clinics handle some MRI procedures and CT scans are misguided. She said she'd rather see him find ways to extend specialists' hours.
"Rather than going and introducing them privately, open up under the public system and have them working longer hours," she said.
"Right now, (the procedures are completed) from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. ... I think there are lots of ways of introducing capacity into the system."
Landry said a partnership with privately owned clinics would lure homegrown medical talent away from the public system and into private industry.
"It will create a competition between the public and private (systems) and it will drain our human resources," he said.
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