The Alberta government recently announced a significant change to how hospital surgeries will be funded. Instead of a lump sum of funding to be used however hospitals see fit, so-called activity-based funding will be tied to the actual care provided to patients.
Hospitals with empty operating rooms would receive less funding while private surgical facilities doing more surgeries, more efficiently, could receive more funding.
We bring two guests with opposite opinions on the matter;
Dr. Brian Day who operates the Cambie Surgery Centre in Vancouver (who recently lost a years-long court battle challenging BC’s Medicare Protection Act as unconstitutional). While Chris Galloway of Friends of Medicare, calls this decision “another blow to public hospitals”.
They each join BCN’s Jeannette Rocher.