A private medical clinic opened in Winnipeg this spring despite angry objections from the province's minister of health (see CMAJ 2001;164[6]:857). “We don't want private hospitals in Manitoba,” said Manitoba Health Minister Dave Chomiak. “They go against everything that medicare stands for.”
The dispute began when British Columbia physician Mark Godley approached the New Democrat government about building a “state-of-the-art” clinic in Winnipeg that would include 3 or 4 beds to allow patients to stay overnight following a procedure.
Godley was stonewalled by the health department because the Manitoba government opposes private clinics, but Chomiak finally admitted that he did not have the authority to prevent construction of a clinic for ambulatory, day-surgery patients. However, he was adamant that the clinic would not have beds for overnight stays while he was minister.
“We don't want private hospitals in this province … [and] we intend to make it ironclad that private facilities will not be open overnight,” Chomiak said. Godley, who owns a similar clinic in Vancouver, went ahead and built the Winnipeg clinic anyway, without the overnight beds. The $3-million Maples Surgical Centre in North Winnipeg, which opened in May, will employ up to 32 doctors in areas such as plastic, eye and dental surgery.