How does a “not-for-profit” monopoly run out of money?

[The Vancouver Island Health Authority] plans to do 4,400 fewer of the magnetic resonance imaging scans to help cover a $45-million budget shortfall, figures released yesterday show.
The cuts likely mean patients will wait in pain even longer for treatment and surgery — and already they are waiting twice as long as last year.
VIHA spokeswoman Shannon Marshall said patients are being booked for March, six months away, for elective MRI scans. Last year, wait times for MRI scans were only three months.
[…]
Last year, medical imaging in VIHA went 9.2 per cent over budget, to $21.2 million instead of the planned $19.4 million. The figures released yesterday showed 18,100 MRI scans were budgeted for last year, but 22,567 were performed.

(A question for Island readers – are your dental offices out there mothballing x-ray equipment?)
h/t Arnie

Treatment you’d only wish on Jack Layton;

We waited nearly an hour for a resident to finally stop by and enquire what the matter was. Appallingly, she had no prior knowledge of why my Mother had been admitted. My shock increased after she asked, in all seriousness, if the angioplasty had been a success. I can only assume that the look on my face caused her to retreat and summon the physician on duty. Exhibiting Solomon like wisdom, the attending doctor suggested that a physical examination was in order. She then disappeared with the resident in tow. A nurse was dispatched who informed us that my Mother would have to be undressed for the examination. Since this Angel of Mercy made no offer to assist, I took it upon myself to undress my bedridden mother in a public corridor, in full view of the passing parade of visitors, patients and staff. (Truth be told, the homeless guy was pretty discrete, or at least preoccupied.)
Mom was eventually examined, in the public corridor, and an ultrasound ordered, all while a street person dumped a filled adult diaper on the floor and replaced her own soiled bed linens in the ward next to us.

Read the whole thing.

Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
Lorrie Goldstein, Toronto Sun – “Nutbars are ruining health care”

Does it meet the test of critical thinking and intellectual honesty to allege Barack Obama and the Democrats want to kill grandmothers and disabled children by creating government-run “death panels”?
Further, if Obama and the Democrats were insane enough to attempt this, would they telegraph it from page 424 to 434 of their 1,017-page health care reform bill under the heading: “Advance Care Planning Consultation”?
Finally, does having their government murder helpless loved ones sound like a vote-getter with the American people? C’mon.

Jim Towey, WSJ – “The Death Book for Veterans “

Last year, bureaucrats at the VA’s National Center for Ethics in Health Care advocated a 52-page end-of-life planning document, “Your Life, Your Choices.” It was first published in 1997 and later promoted as the VA’s preferred living will throughout its vast network of hospitals and nursing homes. After the Bush White House took a look at how this document was treating complex health and moral issues, the VA suspended its use. Unfortunately, under President Obama, the VA has now resuscitated “Your Life, Your Choices.”
Who is the primary author of this workbook? Dr. Robert Pearlman, chief of ethics evaluation for the center, a man who in 1996 advocated for physician-assisted suicide in Vacco v. Quill before the U.S. Supreme Court and is known for his support of health-care rationing.
“Your Life, Your Choices” presents end-of-life choices in a way aimed at steering users toward predetermined conclusions, much like a political “push poll.” For example, a worksheet on page 21 lists various scenarios and asks users to then decide whether their own life would be “not worth living.”

And talk about rapid reaction. In the wake of the attention drawn to “Your Life, Your Choices”, a disclaimer appeared this morning on the front page of the PDF version available on the net.
I don’t much enjoy taking a whack at Lorrie over his op-ed, as I admire 95% of what he writes, but in this case I get the sense that he might benefit from reviewing commentary by well-known nutbar Charles Krauthammer and right wingers like Nat Hentoff.

The incoming president…

… of the Canadian Medical Association says the health-care system is imploding and doctors have to develop a plan to cure it.
Dr. Anne Doig says the care being provided to patients right now is less than optimal.
Doig says doctors, who are gathering in Saskatoon for their annual meeting, recognize that changes must be made.
The pitch for change starts today with a presentation from Dr. Robert Ouellet, the association’s outgoing president.
He has called for a patient-centred system.

More from the National Post.
Dr. Doig will be a guest on John Gormley Live this morning, scheduled for 8:30 Saskatchewan time (10:30 Eastern). You can listen live at the link.

The Saskatchewan Surgical Care Network: “Wait Time Information”

“The SSCN is committed to providing Saskatchewan residents with the most complete and up-to-date wait time information available. This web site provides information regarding: Wait Times/Lists (by Specialty)….”

Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!

You will too.

It didn’t take long to run into an “uh-oh” moment when reading the House’s “health care for all Americans” bill. Right there on Page 16 is a provision making individual private medical insurance illegal.

And after that, they’ll make private billing from your doctor illegal, and private “for profit” diagnostics illegal, and well, there’s not a lot they won’t make illegal to ensure that you, your doctor, your technicians, and your nurses don’t desert the system for greener pastures.
And while you may not learn to love things like “doctor shortages”, “temporary acute care bed closures”, and “dying on waiting lists” right away, your children and grandchildren will, because politicians and union leaders and grade school educators – really, all the leading intellectual lights of your nation – will be hard at work from this day forward, instilling in them the conviction that the health care services they are prohibited from receiving are a cornerstone of your national identity.
So enough with the dissent.
As Canadians can tell you, it’s unpatriotic.

His work continues to spread beyond our shores…

Hospital Patient So Shocked At Dirty Ward She Climbed Out Of Bed To Clean It Herself

Speaking of whom… now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!2004 – “The Greatest Canadian”
2009 – “19 per cent could identify the father of Medicare”

Obama is about to find out* socialized health care’s dirty little secret. Nobody needs to be a doctor.

About 70,000 patient exams in Saskatchewan are being reviewed for possible errors after concerns were raised about the competency of a radiologist.
The review will look at all work done by Dr. L. Darius Tsatsi since he started plying his craft in Saskatchewan in 2004, health officials said Wednesday. It covers people who had X-rays, CT scans, mammography or ultrasound tests.
Most of the tests were done at Yorkton Regional Health Centre over the last five years, but a small number done in Prince Albert and Swift Current will also be reviewed. Tsatsi has worked in all three cities since moving to Saskatchewan from South Africa.”

If US health care is so much more expensive than ours….
….how come they drive nicer cars?

Obama is about to find out socialized health care’s dirty little secret.
Nobody needs to be a doctor.

Another great moment in “universal” health care;

According to Tuesday morning’s Star Phoenix, Saskatoon contractor Ken Olson spotted a man in a hospital gown lying on the ground outside emergency at City Hospital Monday morning.
He ran in to tell staff, but says he was told they would have to call an ambulance to attend to the patient, who was a mere ten feet out the doors.
Olson describes his shock to the newspaper, saying, “What if the man had died while doctors looked on?”
Patti Simonar with the Health Region tells The Star Phoenix that it’s hospital policy to call 911 when there’s a patient found on the grounds.

Conservative bloggers in the US have been chattering about this find in recent hours;

The bill’s health rules will affect “every individual in the United States” (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Having electronic medical records at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial. It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors.
But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.”
[…]
Hospitals and doctors that are not “meaningful users” of the new system will face penalties.

If Obama screws up the American health care system, where the Hell are Canadians supposed to go?

It took only 10 years for the Reform Party to self-fund itself from nothingness to Official Opposition.
What’s your excuse?

Update: Yes, indeed.

It’s probably the Libertarian in me, but I’m afraid there’s
a hard line about a spending deficit. The line for me is that at
no time, ever, should a gov’t spend more than it takes in.

Prime Minister Harper cut taxes and for that I thank
him. Having said that, no one should confuse the GST tax-cut
as a means to reduce the burden on tax-payers. In reality it
was to reduce gov’t revenues to handicap the Liberals. Good
strategy, easy sell, obvious advantages. The down-side of
the cuts though is that there is less revenue. Less revenue
without a corresponding change in spending means that a
deficit is a real possibility.

It’s time to stop the spending. The last budget increased
spending like there was no tomorrow. There were no cuts,
regardless of the opinion of artists, that money they whined
about was “shifted”, not saved.

It’s time to be conservative again.

So, aside from the obvious: HRC, CBC, Wheat Board,
military, what other areas can the Conservative gov’t cut to
get out of the red?

Cheers,
lance

Not. Dead. Enough.

Scratch a progressive in Canada’s socialized medical system, and you’ll find a eugenicist;

Dr. Andre Lalonde, executive vice-president of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC), told the Globe and Mail yesterday, “Palin’s decision to keep her baby, knowing he would be born with the condition, may inadvertently influence other women who may lack the necessary emotional and financial support to do the same.”
“The worry is that this will have an implication for abortion issues in Canada,” he said.
Under the facade of “freedom to choose”, Lalonde said that “popular messages” about women like Palin, who choose not to kill their unborn children, “could have detrimental effects on women and their families.”

The apples, they fall not so far from the tree.

“Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday she might be willing to garnish the wages of workers who refuse to buy health insurance to achieve coverage for all Americans.”

*
Update – The Would-Be Commandress In Chief has the sniffles again!

“Gotcha. The essence of contemporary British national identity is defined by waiting two years for a hip replacement.”

More – slow-mo euthanasia. Why not? It works for us.