Analysis: Canada health care faces strikes Click for complete story Tuesday, 19 June 2001 17:35 (ET) Analysis: Canada health care faces strikes By UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, June 19 (UPI) -- Serious fault lines appeared again in Canada's much-praised health care system this week as nurses and other hospital workers prepared for job action in two provinces, Nova Scotia and British Columbia. In both provinces, the unions are threatening strikes or work-to-rule action to press demands for more pay, while center-right provincial governments are using legislative action to ensure that patients are not punished as the dispute drags on. The problems are familiar. Similar strikes and job actions have crippled the health care system temporarily in every Canadian province over the past four years, with doctors, nurses, lab technicians and other hospital staff all demanding more pay, while provincial governments pleaded that they simply did not have the money. Under the system that has evolved in Canada over 40 years, provincial governments are responsible for administering universal health care within their areas of jurisdictions, while the funding comes from the federal government. The system worked fine during Canada's boom years after World War II, but strains began to appear when a series of recessions set in during the 1970s. By 1993, when Prime Minister Jean Chretien came to power at the head of a center-left Liberal government in Ottawa, the strains had become so acute he began making funding cuts as part of efforts to balance the federal budget. The provinces, in turn were forced to cut back services, close hospitals, freeze salaries and lay off hospital staff, including nurses. Patients bore much of the brunt. Waiting lists grew, emergency rooms came under strain and began turning away patients, and thousands of elective surgeries and hospital appointments had to be canceled every time one province or another was hit by strikes -- whether it was Ontario, Quebec, or one of the eastern or western provinces. In the latest dispute in Nova Scotia, Premier John Hamm's Conservative government has introduced legislation to take away health care workers' right to strike for three years, and the unions responded by calling on its members to work to rule. The state-owned hospitals, in turn, have had to cancel non-emergency surgeries, and close some of the beds. As the acrimony escalates, some nurses hinted Tuesday that they could resort to illegal strikes, as Hamm's political action was hampering their contract negotiations with the Central District Health Authority, their direct employers. The health care workers responded to Hamm's political action by organizing a rally in front of the legislative building. Hamm offered Tuesday to withdraw his legislation if the health care workers accept the offer on the table from the health authority. The scenario was similar in British Columbia, where 14,000 health care workers, including lab technicians and physiotherapists, have walked off the job, and hospitals have canceled some 5,700 elective surgeries. As waiting lists grew, the newly elected center-right government of the provincial premier, Gordon Campbell, recalled the Legislature from its summer recess to pass a bill that would force a 60-day cooling off period. The unions responded Tuesday with political action of their own -- demonstrations in the streets of Vancouver and other cities. Ironically, the latest eruptions came months after Chretien reached a deal with the provincial premiers to restore federal funding to its 1993 level and to keep updating the funding as costs increase. The plan is to be phased in gradually, but Nova Scotia nurses say they are already at the breaking point and need the money now. The provincial governments, which remain in a bind as the funding cuts are only gradually being restored, say the whole system needs to be revamped. Ontario Premier Mike Harris and Alberta Premier Ralph Klein, both Conservatives, have been calling for private clinics to play a role, to reduce the burden on state-owned hospitals. Chretien says he will not permit the provinces to introduce a two-tier system, where the rich can jump the queues by paying more to private clinics while other people are left standing in line. He has threatened to cut off the funding of any province that introduces private clinics in violation of federal law. However, Klein went ahead and passed legislation allowing private clinics to operate in his province. Furious, Chretien visited Alberta for a meeting with Klein, but came away convinced that the province would not be breaking the law, as private clinics would bill the province, and not the patients directly -- thus staying within the system. Meanwhile, Chretien appointed former Saskatchewan Premier Roy Romanow to head a one-man commission of inquiry to look into exactly how the Canadian health care system can be revamped. Romanow, who started work at the beginning of May, said he would talk to people on both sides of the controversy, and would keep an open mind when listening to those who want more private clinics in the Canadian system. Romanow is expected to complete his inquiry by November, but meanwhile there has been input from citizen groups, such as the Canadian Health Coalition, which has suggested that it may be possible to lift some of the burden on hospitals by introducing more home care, where patients in need of long-term care stay in bed at home, with health care workers visiting regularly to deliver the same services that would be delivered in hospital. In a report released last month, the coalition also revealed that the federal government has been encouraging U.S. health care firms to offer their services in Canada, and that Ontario has gone further than another province to privatize home care. Among other ironies that have emerged recently: Unions representing nurses and other health care workers are in the forefront of those demanding that the status quo remain unchanged -- at a time when thousands of nurses who lost their jobs earlier because of funding cuts are now being reinstated as more money flows in. -- Copyright 2001 by United Press International. All rights reserved. -- Miroslav Antic, http://www.antic.org/ THE END ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?bUrHhl.bVKZIr Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: [email protected] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
