by arthur Weinreb, associate Editor,
august 4, 2004
Sixty-six-year-old Claudette Proctor arrived in Canada a few weeks ago to visit her son Mark and his family. During her visit the Guyanese citizen became seriously ill and was hospitalized at Toronto General Hospital. Proctor was diagnosed with life threatening cancer and her doctors determined that she was a good candidate for surgery that could save her life.
But the hospital said no. They intend to throw her out of the facility without the benefit of the critical operation and, at the time of this writing she remains in the institution, too ill to be discharged.
The reason that the hospital is refusing to provide further extensive treatment is that as a visitor to Canada, Claudette Proctor is not covered by this country’s universal health care coverage. The hospital is still intent upon evicting the elderly woman even though her family is willing to pay for the potentially life saving surgery.
Claudette Proctor’s situation has received virtually no attention in the Toronto media with the exception of Citytv. The local station has done extensive interviews with Proctor’s family and has frequently asked viewers for their opinions. Unlike much of the mainline media that show their biases by choosing one side of an issue over the other, the gang at City often has trouble seeing that there is in fact another side to something. Citytv seems to have some difficulty seeing the point of view of the hospital and those who agree with their decision. It is likely that the rest of the media see the story as the can of worms that it is or simply see it as a non-story.
Proctor’s medical bills since her hospitalization have climbed to over $200,000. But money is not the issue. If it were the hospital would perform the operation and bill the family. The problem is twofold--the scarcity of resources and our beloved healthcare system are the culprits.
It is no secret that the best way for federal or provincial politicians to get elected in most parts of the country is to promise to defend (in other words not change or improve) the Canadian healthcare system. Privatization, even though it is allowed in much of the system, is a no-no. Paul Martin managed to cling to power despite corruption, theft and fraud scandals by successfully scaring the populace into believing that the Conservatives under Stephen Harper would dismantle health care as we know it. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty sees nothing wrong with lying as long as he can justify his lies by promising to put more money into health care. Despite the obvious exaggeration of the health care system’s problems for political purposes, resources are not unlimited.
We in this country pride ourselves not only for offering every citizen and permanent resident free access to most medical services, but for making it illegal to pay for those services. a Canadian citizen cannot pay for medical treatment even if he or she can find a medical practitioner who is agreeable to perform services outside of our structured system. No matter how tragic the case of Claudette Proctor is for her and her loved ones, the reality is that Toronto General Hospital is merely reflecting "Canadian values" that we have been told are unalterable.
Third-world countries generally speaking have few or no people in the middle class. Those countries are populated by the very rich and the very poor, the latter comprising the vast majority of the population. But there are thousands of extremely rich people living in poor countries that have medical conditions and have been told by their doctors that there is nothing that can be done. Many of those could come to Canada with trunks full of cash, go to hospitals like Toronto General, receive a two-hour operation and fully recover. and Canadians who need an operation would remain at home while the doctors worked on the foreigners and the under funded hospital counted their money.
It is sad and unfortunate what is happening to Claudette Proctor. But this is the system that we are so proud of and we have to live with it.
Or die with it.