In B.C., private surgical clinics have alleged that the B.C. Medicare Protection Act violates patients’ charter rights
Provincial governments have responded to the Canada Health Act and their reliance on federal transfers by enacting their own legislation to crush any perceived threat to medicare.Article content
The result is a system of government-rationed health care that is easily overwhelmed and leaves patients suffering on worsening wait lists. Forcing patients to languish on wait lists past medically acceptable wait times in the name of an ideological ideal is wrong, and legal groups like the Canadian Constitution Foundation argue that it is also a violation of patients’ charter-protected right to security of person.
The clinics in B.C. have been continuing to operate because they obtained an injunction pending the outcome of the appeal. So they have been permitted to treat patients that the public system can’t accommodate within maximum wait times.