If you didn't know anything about the horror that is the government-run health care system in Canada, this story about waiting lists for orthopedic surgery in British Columbia would serve as a good primer. It's all here: shortages of diagnostic machines, long waits for MRI tests, rationing of operating room hours for "elective surgery", long waits for treatment and the complete inability and unwillingness of government to meet demand with an adequate supply - which is something that free markets do every hour of every day:
In a minor league game more than a year ago, 17-year-old Maple Ridge hockey player Don Dowhaniuk took a hit and tore a ligament in his left knee.
He's still waiting for surgery, one of 19,023 B.C. residents waiting for orthopedic operations, according to the government's data.
Professional hockey players and amateurs with affluent parents can afford to pay for such operations at private clinics. It's not an option for members of the Dowhaniuk family, although they did pay $550 for an MRI after waiting six months to no avail for one in the public system. But finding $5,000 to $6,000 for surgery in the private system is out of the question for Jackie, a school accountant, and Jamie Dowhaniuk, a construction framer.
[...]
Dr. Paul Wright, the surgeon Dowhaniuk waited until last July to see, and who will eventually do the operation -- now estimated to take place in the summer, 18 months after the injury -- said he has 150 patients booked for surgery and 300 others waiting for a surgical date.
"I'm embarrassed to be a Canadian orthopedic surgeon in these circumstances. But I get only one day a week of operating room at Burnaby Hospital and that means I can only clear about five cases off per week," said Wright, who specializes in the kind of surgery Dowhaniuk needs ...
"If you were building widgets in a factory and had a backlog of orders you would add more shifts, but that is not the way it is working here. The last case in the OR finishes at 3:30 p.m. and then it's used for emergency surgery," said Wright.
There are nine operating rooms in use at Burnaby Hospital; one other is used for storage.
According to the article, there are over 19 thousand people waiting for orthopedic surgery in British Columbia alone - yet surgeons are limited to one day a week in the OR, the OR is shut down to "elective" surgery at 3:30 in the afternoon and one OR at the hospital mentioned is used for storage!
Also, keep in mind that the family mentioned in the article may be unable to afford the surgery because they have already paid for "national health insurance" through high taxes - and that private insurance for covered services is outlawed (and therefore a market does not exist).
Finally, I've also been told by orthopedic surgeons in Canada that these types of injuries in teenagers often go untreated for such long periods of time that young people permanently injure their joints, develop a lifelong limp and require joint replacement operations in middle age.
8 Feb 2006 @ 10:21am