Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 21, 2001, Winnipeg, Manitoba Focus a9 we Neil 2 2001 healthcare delivery French dont wait for health care Canadian system be tolerated in France by Linda West i have recently met some people from France through delightful discus have challenged my beliefs about the Canadian healthcare sys most recently they made me understand that waiting for health care is not the Norm in i have come to know of a whom i will Call Dave is retired and enjoys spending part of his Day walking in the Manitoba Countryside where he eighteen months ago Dave was told he would require surgery to remove cataracts and that he should not during the past 18 months he has had tests to prepare him for the surgery but no As Luck would have he now requires surgery on his knee As it was injured in a fall Over an object he did not Dave is now on two waiting my friends from France wanted to know Why Dave had to wait so Long to have an operation that would clearly improve his enjoyment of life and increase his they were Obi they were Ousby shocked fas As this would this would not not occur in in in Waits Waits of three weeks Are considered i found it difficult to explain Why we tolerated the Long during the election the nip had promised to reduce the wait list and to eliminate the need to go to the for the nip increased the healthcare budget by approximately we Are now spending More than any other province on a per person basis Over for every woman and despite these spending waiting lists Are it is easy to Tell them that the Canada health act has five Princi pals that apply to Hospital and physician they Are i Public administration i comprehensiveness pay for All insured services i universality of coverage i portability i accessibility it is not so easy to explain who has to what and i remind myself that our health care system has contributed enor Mously to better Early Canadian press French citizens do not have to wait for healthcare services and can choose Between Public and private healthcare systems were quite effective because a Small amount of Money could cure or prevent an infectious disease and increase life As Dave has found the system has not been Able to adapt to our current current technology and current methods of we should be looking for alternative ways to fill current needs and searching for More appropriate care providers will Tell anyone who asks that it is hard to treat Dis ease or injury effectively when Long waiting lists exist for specialist surgery and treat these failings Are due not to Lack of knowledge but to the inability to apply that knowledge these Are failings within the system itself and not the failings of healthcare providers working in the recent publications such As will the baby Boomer bust the health care budget by the Howe Institute and Boom bust and Echo by David foot Tell us demographics Are changing and will add to the Chal Lenge of providing needed health ser vices and funding the healthcare we will require very Good Steward ship and a government that is Able to that we Are develop a stewardship is the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to ones Manitoban have entrusted both their Well being and their Money to the health the Manitoba government has a responsibility to protect our Well being and use our Money Manitoban have the world entrusted both health Orga their Well being and their Money the health value for the healthcare dollars we Are failure to achieve the potential is due More to systemic failings than to technical any reversal of this will have to Start with Good with rare waiting lists in Manitoba Are erratically poorly monitored according to most informed in grave need of the Canadian medical association states that for want of systematic clinical thresholds and some physicians May feel in their patients to add patients names to Long lists in Antici pation of future need for a the Cha suggests that an ind Epen nongovernmental organization with an advisory committee should be responsible for overseeing and administering sys tems for managing waiting four themes can be found in writ Ings about healthcare waiting lists i centralized private and Public i urgency i include the top 50 100 procedures i Independent of Holder once the waiting lists Are devel we will know the size of the problem and we will know if the situation is getting better or if we Are to learn from we would discuss adding ser vices provided by the private sector and funded through Public in the patient is free to choose treatment in either a Public or Pri vate Hospital or clinic and Dave would have had his surgery a Long time Linda West teaches labour relations in the faculty of manage ment of the University of letters to the editor the free press welcomes letters from they must include the authors address and Telephone letters May be letters to the 1355 Mountain r2x fax email whats Church got to do with it re Day copies up to right March Day states that along with president George Bush and mexican president Vincente All share the shocking to the Liberal of regular Church so what i suppose Hes trying to hold himself up to a higher moral Standard than his Liberal none the if Church attendance is a Corre late of Bush and Fox i fail to understand Why Day would want this pointed look at the Bill picked up by Alberta contribution from Bennett Jones the same Law firm who defended Day in his Bush execution record As governor of and what Church attendance has to do with these actions is beyond my i sup pose desperate times Call for Desper ate my guess is that Day is hoping that the lord will work in mysterious ways and bring Back much of the popularity he has Chris Loewen Winnipeg Buhler profitable in poor Economy in Light of All the Media attention the Buhler versatile versus Caw dispute is i feel compelled to share my As the wife of a Buhler manufacturing employee from mor my husband has worked for John Buhler for years and in that time has been rewarded very generously for his the company has continued to grow and maintain profitability through a very depressed agriculture Economy not just and Buhler has continued to share his profits with his growing number of i cannot understand the mentality of the Union to walk away v v from to jobs at any time but especially in Light of the current agriculture to Buhler stick to your you have an overwhelming amount of supporters in the Morden area to Canadian Auto workers Leader Buzz Hargrove i think you messed Lis Krueger Morden time to dust off report and really help kids three years ago the Osborne Street businesses spearheaded a forceful get Tough plan to get the Squeegee kids off the Street in Osborne they were City councillors rushed to obey in exculpate on of their asked the social plan Ning Council to do a Quick study and make recommendations for a and solution to the multiple problems of Many Young people in our society so on june the report of the 18member task Force plus dozens of others who were on subcommittees was Given to perhaps the report has been largely ignored the merchants had been Given their fix and the kids had been hounded into a main recommendation of the an ambitious powerhouse project youth training Busi Ness was allowed to shrink into its present a holding action called which has recently been booted out of its Osborne Street quarters by its the reason Osborne Biz is unhappy there Are too Many kids the free press Story of March 9 has made the kids and their need briefly visible once City and provincial politicians have had to renew their platitudes one continue the trickle of Money that keeps the kids relatively out of sight and Busi Ness might this not be the moment to urge that the report be dusted and its vision for a set of real helps in a real society implemented our City and provincial leaders need to remember that they Are supposed to govern for All of car Ridd Nick Ernette Winnipeg Farmers have to beg our Farmers have to picket or March on parliament Hill to get help from the the Grain should have increased with the times like every thing else i wonder if our friends who live and work in the cities realize that Grain prices Are the same As they were 50 years but their products in the grocery stores have gone up 500 per i wish everyone could see on paper what it costs to buy the Grain seeds in the Plant fertilize Gas for the tractors and machines to Cut the combines to Harvest the trucks to haul it All we seem to see in the head lines is the Farmers need help its unfortunate that we dont All work taking Pride in our different occupations and making a better coun try for i wonder where the groceries will come from when the Farmers Are no longer around Lori Hildebrand Mather Robert Latimer is not Folk hero at one time it was believed that Only in countries where the general population is illiterate or uneducated that masses of people can be manipulated to think or believe or behave a certain the murder trial of Robert Latimer has shown that even in Canada this is pos the news Media choose to ignore Tes Timony that showed Tracy latimers Happy times and her humanity they simply chose to report her the effect of it was they made Robert Latimer into a Folk today there Are thousands of people willing to sign a petition asking the Powers that be to reduce or revoke Robert latimers according to Mark an advocate for the 73 per cent of canadians actually sup port latimers action and Are therefore sending the message that disabled peo ple Are not equal to other it seems that society assumes it is better to be dead than some canadians in the Legal profession Are talking about a third category of murder called compassionate Homi cide intended for the killers of the disabled and the those convicted under that category would get reduced the irony is that if a non Handi capped person talks about they Are sent for psychiatric care but if a handicapped person talks about Sui cide there Are people who think they should be in this North american which the Pope himself Calls a culture of we have accepted the notion that there is such a thing As life that not Worth living and that the life of the handicapped and the we need to go Back to the idea that All life has a human life Doest have value just because it can con but it has value simply because it Paul Kalyniuk Selkirk doonesbury by Garry Trudeau you i in yup that Okay ;