Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current issue
    • Past issues
    • Early releases
    • Collections
    • Sections
    • Blog
    • Infographics & illustrations
    • Podcasts
    • COVID-19 articles
    • Obituary notices
  • Authors & Reviewers
    • Overview for authors
    • Submission guidelines
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Forms
    • Editorial process
    • Editorial policies
    • Peer review process
    • Publication fees
    • Reprint requests
    • Open access
    • Patient engagement
  • Physicians & Subscribers
    • Benefits for Canadian physicians
    • CPD Credits for CMA Members
    • Subscribe to CMAJ Print
    • Subscription prices
    • Obituary notices
  • Alerts
    • Email alerts
    • RSS
  • JAMC
    • À propos
    • Numéro en cours
    • Archives
    • Sections
    • Abonnement
    • Alertes
    • Trousse média 2023
    • Avis de décès
  • CMAJ JOURNALS
    • CMAJ Open
    • CJS
    • JAMC
    • JPN

User menu

Search

  • Advanced search
CMAJ
  • CMAJ JOURNALS
    • CMAJ Open
    • CJS
    • JAMC
    • JPN
CMAJ

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current issue
    • Past issues
    • Early releases
    • Collections
    • Sections
    • Blog
    • Infographics & illustrations
    • Podcasts
    • COVID-19 articles
    • Obituary notices
  • Authors & Reviewers
    • Overview for authors
    • Submission guidelines
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Forms
    • Editorial process
    • Editorial policies
    • Peer review process
    • Publication fees
    • Reprint requests
    • Open access
    • Patient engagement
  • Physicians & Subscribers
    • Benefits for Canadian physicians
    • CPD Credits for CMA Members
    • Subscribe to CMAJ Print
    • Subscription prices
    • Obituary notices
  • Alerts
    • Email alerts
    • RSS
  • JAMC
    • À propos
    • Numéro en cours
    • Archives
    • Sections
    • Abonnement
    • Alertes
    • Trousse média 2023
    • Avis de décès
  • Visit CMAJ on Facebook
  • Follow CMAJ on Twitter
  • Follow CMAJ on Pinterest
  • Follow CMAJ on Youtube
  • Follow CMAJ on Instagram
News

For the record

CMAJ May 12, 2009 180 (10) 1009; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.090629
  • Article
  • Responses
  • Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

Claim and counterclaim

Canadian Medical Association past president Dr. Brian Day and other owners of British Columbia private medical clinics have launched a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms challenge against the provincial government’s prohibition against charging fees for essential services. Essentially, the suit asks the BC Supreme Court to apply the principles implicit within the Supreme Court of Canada’s landmark 2005 Chaoulli decision (Chaoulli and Zeliotis v. A.G. Quebec et al.) that the province of Quebec’s ban on private health insurance for medically necessary services violated provincial human rights law.

Day’s Cambie Surgeries Corporation, 4 other private firms and the Canadian Independent Medical Clinics Association argue in their writ of summons (www.healthcoalition.ca/CIMCAwrit.pdf) that patients are entitled to expedited medical treatment at the more than 50 independent surgical facilities in BC, and that restrictions imposed by the province’s Medicare Protection Act violate the section 7 Charter right to life, liberty and security of the person, as well as the section 15 right to equality. The suit also seeks unspecified general damages.

The counterclaim from the province’s health minister, attorney-general and Medical Services Commission argues that “there is no freestanding constitutional right to health care” so the Charter is essentially inapplicable, even in cases where patients had long waits to obtain treatment (www.healthcoalition.ca/Defence-BCgov.pdf). It also asserts that private clinics have billed patients directly for insured services in violation of the public medical plan and the Canada Health Act. The “extra billing” places the province at serious risk of financial penalties imposed by the federal government for such violations, the counter-claim states. The clinics have “intended to cause economic loss to the Province, or been wilfully blind or reckless with respect to whether such loss would occur.”

To that end, the province also sought an injunction that would allow its inspectors to enter Cambie offices and inspect records for evidence of billing for insured services. — Wayne Kondro, CMAJ

Wait time reductions

Canadian hospitals have made significant strides in shortening wait times and improving patient flow, according to a report from the Association of Canadian Academic Healthcare Organizations.

Those strides have been achieved through better integrating family physicians and specialists, better disease screening, reducing emergency room visits and hospital readmissions, improving ambulance offload times, moving patients through emergency departments quicker, reducing time required to complete urgent consults, reducing paperwork, and improving patient and family participation, says the report, “Wait” Watchers III: Order & Speed … Improving Access to Care Through Innovations in Patient Flow, released Mar. 26.

Glenn Brimacombe, the association’s president and chief executive officer, said in an email to CMAJ that this demonstrates “the power of local innovations in improving timely access to care often within the existing resources of the organization.” — Roger Collier, CMAJ

PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

Canadian Medical Association Journal: 180 (10)
CMAJ
Vol. 180, Issue 10
12 May 2009
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author

Article tools

Respond to this article
Print
Download PDF
Article Alerts
To sign up for email alerts or to access your current email alerts, enter your email address below:
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on CMAJ.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
For the record
(Your Name) has sent you a message from CMAJ
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the CMAJ web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
For the record
CMAJ May 2009, 180 (10) 1009; DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.090629

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
‍ Request Permissions
Share
For the record
CMAJ May 2009, 180 (10) 1009; DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.090629
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Claim and counterclaim
    • Wait time reductions
  • Responses
  • Metrics
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • Saying goodbye to CMAJ News
  • National survey highlights worsening primary care access
  • How Canadian hospitals are decreasing carbon emissions
Show more News

Similar Articles

 

View Latest Classified Ads

Content

  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • Collections
  • Sections
  • Blog
  • Podcasts
  • Alerts
  • RSS
  • Early releases

Information for

  • Advertisers
  • Authors
  • Reviewers
  • CMA Members
  • CPD credits
  • Media
  • Reprint requests
  • Subscribers

About

  • General Information
  • Journal staff
  • Editorial Board
  • Advisory Panels
  • Governance Council
  • Journal Oversight
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Copyright and Permissions
CMAJ Group

Copyright 2023, CMA Impact Inc. or its licensors. All rights reserved. ISSN 1488-2329 (e) 0820-3946 (p)

All editorial matter in CMAJ represents the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of the Canadian Medical Association or its subsidiaries.

To receive any of these resources in an accessible format, please contact us at CMAJ Group, 500-1410 Blair Towers Place, Ottawa ON, K1J 9B9; p: 1-888-855-2555; e: cmajgroup@cmaj.ca

CMA Civility, Accessibility, Privacy

 

Powered by HighWire