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British
Columbia
Docs prefer FFS
to salaries
AGASSIZ —
The Fraser Health Authority's (FHA) decision to change
the Agassiz Community Health Centre to a fee-for-service
model instead of a salaried model is looking like a
shrewd decision. The new remuneration system has convinced
two doctors to sign on, preventing any more than a one-month
stoppage when the last of the current physicians leaves
at the end of September. "The clinic model didn't seem
to be suitable for the physicians," local FHA director
Grant Roberge told the Chilliwack Times. The
Agassiz clinic was the last salaried-system holdout
in the FHA. The failure to switch to fee-for-service
sooner has been blamed for driving away the five doctors
who had worked there. LD
Alberta
Montana steals the
limelight
EDMONTON —
Calgary's decision to send the mother of identical quadruplets
to a Great Falls, Montana, hospital for delivery left
Alberta with a tab of around $215,000. Karen Jepp was
flown to the Montana hospital due to the lack of neonatal
beds in the immediate area as well as in other Canadian
hospitals. The procedure would have cost $61,400 if
it was performed in Alberta. Critics pointed to cutbacks
in the 90s as the cause of the current healthcare woes
but the Calgary Health Region retorted that neonatal-nurse
staffing challenges, not underfunding, was at the root
of the problem. GE
Hot
Spot
Saskatchewan
Autoclave error
prompts blood tests
LEADER —
One hundred and sixty-nine patients in southwestern
Saskatchewan have been advised to get hepatitis B and
C and HIV blood tests after officials discovered that
medical instruments at Leader Hospital may not have
been properly sterilized between January 1 and August
13. The culprit is an autoclave malfunction, said officials.
Cypress Health Region CEO Jim Hornell told the Southwest
Booster that because the procedures were minimally
invasive, the risk of infection is low. "Nothing may
have gone wrong," he said. "[We] can't say for sure
that everything was done exactly the way it needed to
be done, and that's why we're taking these precautions."
TJ
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Manitoba
Momentum builds
for non-MD scripts
WINNIPEG —
Manitoba is heading towards letting pharmacists prescribe
drugs in certain, limited cases despite the recent vote
at the CMA's annual meeting that said only doctors should
prescribe. The province's Pharmaceutical Act, passed
last fall, paved the way for the expanded role for Manitoba's
pharmacists. "The doctors will be in on the discussions,
continuing to build on the very good relationships that
exist here in Manitoba between docs and pharmacists,"
health minister Theresa Oswald told the CBC. The CMA
resolution said that only physicians have the proper
training and access to patients' histories, test results
and diagnoses to safely prescribe drugs. HA
Ontario
ON assumes drug
and disability costs
QUEEN'S PARK —
With the October 10 provincial election drawing
nearer, premier Dalton McGuinty has announced that the
province will take over the costs of welfare disability
and drug benefit programs beginning January 1, reported
the Toronto Star. The costs were downloaded to
municipalities in 1998 under former Premier Mike Harris's
Conservatives. The current Conservative Party leader,
John Tory, conceded that the downloading may have been
a mistake. NDP leader Howard Hampton called the move
"an exercise in political damage control." The total
costs amount to nearly $1 billion. JJM
Contributors: Hector Andrews, Simon
Biggar, Donna Byers, Lance Davies, Geoff Everett, Thane
Jenkins, Paige Lee, Julie J Mercier, Deana Stokes Sullivan
and Henrietta Yan.
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