betraying the public trust should mean resignation
Newfoundland Premier is a wealthy man with a heart condition who has elected to seek medical care within the United States rather than avail himself of the provincial or national health care system. Medical tourism among the wealthy has always been with us and I expect it always will be.
While I can laud his decision to ‘opt’ out of provincial or the national healthcare system and consequently free up the medical resources within the country by the factor of one. Unless of course, his medical adventurism is paid for out of the public purse. Although, there is no evidence this is the case and I would expect the man who donates his premier’s salary to charity would also be paying for his own out of country medical expenses. We simply do not know and his office is rather silent on this who is footing the bill.
As an individual I completely support his right to do whatever with his own money but…and isn’t there always a but? As premier of the province and as one of the gatekeeper of the public health care system within this country I expect better – not only for him but for all the citizens of this country. Failure to address any deficiencies of the public health care within his home province or even within the country is a gross betrayal of the public trust and therefore; it is simply time for him to resign his office.
Before I pass judgement on this, I want to hear exactly what medical procedure he required, and why it wasn’t immediately available in Newfoundland.
Canada and the United States do swap medical cases. Sometimes the best available hospital for a particular service is across the border. It works both ways. So, maybe he was impatient and jumped the queue, or maybe what he needed wasn’t available in Newfoundland, or maybe what he needed was available in Newfoundland, but not soon enough to meet his medical need. Until we have more details, we don’t have anything concrete to argue on.
Prudence is always good, what disturbs me is the implausibility of the procedure not being offered in anywhere else in the country – and my understanding of medical wait lists are strictly determined by the physician overseeing your case. So if he wanted to jump the list either in Newfoundland or somewhere else in country I wouldn’t care as long as he paid for it out of his own pocket but as gatekeeper of his province’s health care and a premier of a Canadian province I have issues. Of course, if his health needs at least a 12 week recovery period, he really should be resigning his premiership in the first place.
“Prudence is always good, what disturbs me is the implausibility of the procedure not being offered in anywhere else in the country”
In the country? Probably very implausible. However, maybe we should consider the geography here. Where exactly has he sought treatment? Is that closer to St. John’s than, say, Montreal? If a certain procedure isn’t available in the Atlantic provinces, it might make more sense to ship one out to a New England hospital rather than Montreal.
I also agree that if he is going to be in recovery for some time, he should resign the premiership. However, if the recovery is only going to be twelve weeks, I would have less problem with him handing the reins over to his deputy. I mean, it’s not much different than maternity leave, here.
Very good point about the ‘maternity leave’ and I hadn’t thought of that parallel – although you are showing your age as maternity leaves are no longer 12-16 weeks duration in Canada – that’s old school. Now the leaves are about a year. What if an elected official does go on either paternal or maternity leave for the entire duration? This would seem to leave constituents in a bit of a bind. But are there any guarantees the premier will only need 12 weeks? What if he gets an infection or complications result in a longer period.
As for New England vs Montreal, well there is the whole cost issue to consider. The distance might be further than say Maine but considering the rates often charged to foreign nationals, and the high cost of high quality care in the US, I’d still see Montreal as ‘win-win’ scenario. Of course, I am a bit of a nationalist, with a decidedly ‘Canada first’ bias so I’d rather spend any ‘costs’ in Canada supporting Canadian doctors, nurses, aids and hospitals rather than foreign ones.