Harper promises shorter, guaranteed waits for health care
Last Updated: Friday, December 2, 2005 | 4:25 PM ET
CBC News
Harper also moved to counter his critics by denying he intends to damage medicare.
"There will be no private, parallel system," Harper told a campaign rally in Winnipeg.
The provinces and the federal government would gather to establish waiting times for various services and ensure they're adhered to strictly.
Stephen Harper at a campaign rally in Winnipeg, Friday.
"We will reduce waiting times; we will hold governments accountable," he said.
A cancer patient, for example, should start radiation treatments no more than 10 working days after seeing a cancer specialist, Harper said. As well, patients should not wait more than 10 months for non-urgent hip and knee replacements.
A group of medical organizations called the Wait Times Alliance suggested those are medically acceptable targets.
Harper's plan would allow patients to go to other provinces for services their own province can't provide within the time limits.
This type of guarantee, Harper said, is "the only way that government can preserve the principles of the Canada Health Act and respect requirements of the Charter of Rights."
In September 2004, Prime Minister Paul Martin signed a $41-billion agreement with the provinces which the Liberals touted as a fix for a generation.
"I will not call our approach a quick fix," Harper said on the fourth day of campaigning for the Jan. 23 election. "It is a call to action. We are going to reduce wait times, we are going to hold governments accountable for their commitments, we are going to do what it takes to protect the public health-care system and respect the charter."
Harper said his party would work with the provinces to set other priorities for health care, including getting more doctors by expanding educational programs.
Martin said Canadians should be wary of the plan.
"This is really a question of trust," he said while campaigining in Toronto. "The fact is in the last election campaign and in the debates, Stephen Harper essentially said 'I don't care how health care is delivered.'"
Martin said he doesn't believe Harper's promise to ensure treatment remains universally available to everyone in a public, single-payer system.
NDP Leader Jack Layton said from Regina that he believes both the Conservatives and the Liberals will allow more private health care in the country.
"We want a health-care system where the health-care card gets you health care, not the credit card," Layton said.
Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe said the provinces should establish norms for treatment because they are responsible for health care.
"We don't need intervening in the health sector," Duceppe said from Montreal. "Ottawa has no expertise at all in that sector. I know there are 10,000 civil servants in Health Canada, but they don't manage a single hospital."
But Dr. Brian Day, an orthopedic surgeon in Vancouver, said Harper's plan to reduce wait times is worth considering.
"I think it's a step in the right direction. How could anyone argue with that? "
