Doctor launches suit against BC health laws

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Four people, ranging from a teenager to a 79-year-old, have joined a lawsuit launched by a doctor who is in favour of performing private surgeries.

Dr. Brian Day with the Cambie Surgery Centre is challenging BC health laws, calling this one of the most important legal fights in BC that he’s prepared to take to the Supreme Court of Canada.

The case has to do with whether you should be able to pay for private health care for any service and avoid wait lists.

“Patients who are suffering and in need of care, should not be prevented from using their own resources,” he says.
    
He cites a 2007 survey of doctors, which shows 24 per cent had a patient die while on a wait list.

“Those guilty of supporting or enforcing this legislation, while propagating the myth that such laws are good, should reflect on whether they are guilty of complicity in the causation of those deaths,” he says.

Day’s clinic was ordered to halt procedures after an audit last month turned up what the province dubs ‘double billing,’ showing 205 patients were billed for services already covered by medicare.

He says his amended lawsuit against the commission, the minister of health services, and the attorney general, will be filed today in BC Supreme Court in Vancouver.

“It’s often said by those supporting the status quo that no one should be denied access to health care based on their ability to pay,” Day adds. “At present, patients are denied access based on government’s inability or refusal to deliver.”

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