The decision was not made by the hospital in question; the article states clearly that it was made by “the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.” So what we have here is not one hospital dumping on another, but the management of a group of hospitals trying to concentrate its emergency surgery services in one of a group of hospitals in an area. Second, there appear to be plausible reasons for this: their surgeons tend to be specializing further, presumably meaning that concentrating them together gives a greater likelyhood that any random patient rolled in off the street will get the best doctor for his problem. That same management has also done this in other areas previously, though it’s not clear that they examined whether or not this works before implementing it in this particular case.

Responding to another commenter, the “needless transportation within a city for ’standard’ emergency surgeries” thing may or may not be an issue; I do note that they said “re-route,” implying that this applies only to patients already being transported.

And one last minor point: there was only one “protester,” a local MP. I’m wondering if he wasn’t just doing this as a publicity stunt.

cjs@cynic.net

There is nothing “free market” about legislators arbitrarily deciding the value of an injury. But when you take away people’s right to recovery, and make vague claims about promising more physicians and specialists everywhere if you get your reform, and you don’t deliver, you are treating healthcare as a right. You sell tort reform as promising more care and more care and more care. That makes people expect it when you get them to pass it. Problem is, you can’t deliver because no specialist really wants to go to rural BFE to practice. So people naturally ask themselves why they aren’t getting this “right” after they gave you protection.

Nothing illogical about that conclusion. The long and short is that unless you physicians stop doing your insurers dirty work for little to no benefit to you, and start focusing on your manner of compensation, you’re going to get your tort “reform”, because along with universal health care we’ll get a workers comp style no fault system. Then you can rave about how great European systems are because you’ll have first hand experience!