Legislative Report

Private Health Clinics

You may have heard or read about new private clinics coming to Saskatchewan. Don Copeman, CEO of Copeman Health Care, already has a clinic in Vancouver and three more in the works for Ontario.

These clinics feature doctors and specialists along with extra staff like nutritionists and physiotherapists. Copeman says the emphasis in these clinics is on disease prevention. Here’s the catch. You have to pay to get access to these clinics. Mr. Copeman wants $1,200 up front and $2,300 for the year.

What do I think about this? Make no mistake — I am the Health Critic for the Saskatchewan Party and we believe in a publicly funded, publicly administered health care system that complies with the Canada Health Act. Anybody who tells you anything different is wrong.

Why are these clinics popping up in Saskatchewan? This is the end result of a government that has not dealt with timely access to care and wait lists effectively. Saskatchewan still has the longest waiting lists in Canada. The NDP’s failure to address this has caused the demand for and viability of a private clinic that guarantees patients access. The Supreme Court ruling based on a Montreal case should have been a wake up call for the Calvert NDP. However, the problems still exist.

The Calvert NDP is trying to have things both ways. On the one hand, party members are advocating for a ban on the use of private MRI test results in Saskatchewan. On the other hand, the Calvert NDP sends SGI and WCB patients to private MRI clinics so they can get quicker test results.

What should be done about Mr. Copeman’s plan? At this point we don’t have all the information about this clinic, how it would run and what services it would provide. We should find out more, and have an open public debate about the appropriate ratio of private clinics in the provinces. Some services are already private. Many optometrists, dentists, laser clinics and medical labs provide services that the government pays for. Don’t forget that most doctor’s offices are actually private corporations.

The bottom line is this: The Calvert NDP has to realize that if it cannot provide the services to people that it is promising them, those people will look elsewhere. Some people will look to private clinics.

The Saskatchewan Party does not believe that people should have to pay for access and that’s why we have and will continue to demand that the Calvert NDP improve wait times and deal with the current shortages of doctors and specialists.

Past Legislative Reports