Buckdog

According to the Saskatchewan surgical care network data for orthopedic surgery 26% of Saskatchewan patients between Jan and June of 2007 waited between 4-12 months, 9% waited 13-18 months, and 4% waited longer than 18 months for their surgery. Can you imagine waiting a year and a half for surgery? And this doesn't even include the time that you have to wait to initially see the specialist and get onto the waiting list.

There are reports that the Canora hospital is closing its emergency department for the evening because there isn't a doctor available to staff it.

How messed up are the priorities of the NDP when they think that expanding an already stressed health care system is a good idea?

How messed up are the priorities of the NDP when they think that expanding an already stressed health care system is a good idea?

Erm, that's the recommendation of the federal Romanow Commission.

And also the recommendation of all 10 premiers of the provinces in the First Ministers' Conference.

And also the recommendation of federal Health Minister Tony Clement.

Note that prescription drugs are the highest costs in the Canadian health care system. Bulk, universal purchasing of drugs is economically sound and done in many countries in the world.

Wanted to add: the way to alleviate wait times is increasing funding, and expanding coverage. Canadian health care has fallen far behind that of Europe in terms of coverage.

It's the bare minimum of hospitals, psychiatrists, doctors.

Just so you know, in the end, public health care is much less expensive and provides much more bang for buck. WHO stats show this.

First of all, the Romanow commission was a crock. A pile of garbage that cost millions of dollars. I guess that's what happens when you commission an NDPer to examine the health care system.

Why wouldn't the provinces all agree on the Federal government giving them more money so that they can carry out a pharmacare plan?

Here's what the Canadian Medical Association has to say about pharmacare:

"The CMA says a national pharmacare program proposed by Canada's premiers "is a worthy goal" but it also notes that Canadians have consistently made clear that access to services remains their number one priority."

How does expanding coverage address wait times?

Yes Canada is behind Europe in terms of coverage, mostly because there are a lot of people here that think that two tier health care is scary and American style eliminating the possibility of positive reform.

You claim that WHO stats show public style health care is the way to go, but you overlook the fact that the WHO ranks us 30th in the world for our health care system.