Reports and Articles (Private Clinics) Bookmark and Share
  • Collaboration and cooperation—not competition— between health care providers is the key to reducing surgical wait times. To read more,  download the April 2007 report the BCHC co-published with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives entitled Why Wait? Public Solutions to Cure Surgical Waitlists that clearly outlines the cure for long wait times.
  • Wait time "guarantees" are no solution to long wait lists. However, since 2006 the federal government has promoted the establishment of wait time guarantees with the provinces, whereby patients would be sent to other provinces or even the United States, expenses paid, if they cannot access timely care at home for certain procedures.

For more info,  read the 2006 Report of the Federal Advisor (Dr. Brian Postl) on Wait Times , where he provides a blueprint for this kind of national coordination and recommends fixing wait time problems in the public system.

  • Are private clinics a solution to wait lists and health care costs? Hardly. This recent article by BCHC member Colleen Fuller outlines the costliness and inefficiency of private surgical clinics.
  • For more information, read a  systematic review of studies comparing mortality rates of private for-profit and private not-for-profit hospitals.