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Why on earth are Canadians getting billed for air ambulance services?
I know why but the Canada Health Act of 1984 cannot be considered an acceptable excuse.
Acts can be modified and in this case should be.
I know why but the Canada Health Act of 1984 cannot be considered an acceptable excuse.
Acts can be modified and in this case should be.
Universal access to health care is a Canadian birthright.
I would argue that timely access to quality emergency health care is a basic human right.
I would argue that timely access to quality emergency health care is a basic human right.
Though Canada has an excellent emergency health care system, there are clear inequities in access to the best of available technologies and medical expertise given the reality of rural care.
That requires the ability of our nation to identify and safely transport those who require higher levels of care.
Emergency care does not begin and end at the ER doors..
Emergency care does not begin and end at the ER doors..
Emergency Medical services and extending emergency expertise into the community is part of the responsibility for Canada's emergency physicians as is ensuring the patient is safe during the transfer between hospitals.
Canada is a big country with obvious factors of distance/time/geography and weather impacting on every clinical transport decision from a rural area.
The ability to transfer patients by air is essential to embracing our geography and our overall commitment to our rural populations.
It is bad enough that our air ambulance services sometimes have to survive by bake sales and that other large provinces do not have dedicated air ambulance services.
But it is doubly concerning that our sickest and most vulnerable patients, in their absolute hour of need are subjected to excessive demands for payment.
Nobody asks to get sick or injured and nobody requests an air medevac.
The health care team makes that request on behalf of the patient to save life, limb and function.
The health care team makes that request on behalf of the patient to save life, limb and function.
Our patients so affected suddenly find themselves as strangers in their own land - paying out of pocket for necessary emergency services - like our neighbours to the South.
This is not the Canada I know and needs to stop.
