Premiers hint at health-care changes, but workers say public system should be fixed first

While there was plenty of talk about private health care during Monday's premiers summit in Moncton, the four leaders weren't specific about what they have in mind.

"Doing the same over and over again, throwing billions and billions of dollars at a solution, and keeping the status quo, is just not working," said Ontario Premier Doug Ford during a post-meeting news conference.

Politics aside, there are likely few Canadians these days who would disagree with Ford on the point, including Maritime premiers, who agreed things had to be done differently.

"Yes, things are going to change, and yes that could be in a different form, and I don't know what that's going to look like," conceded New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs, the host of the meeting.

Later, on CTV Atlantic News, he acknowledged private options were being considered, but not in the traditional sense.

"But it will still be publically funded," said Higgs. "What we have to do is look at what are our critical wait times."

There's a growing list of those in hospitals and clinics across the country — ER's shutting down early, unheard-of in places with big populations.

Some nurses say they gave the premiers some ideas on front-line fixes during a breakfast meeting a couple of months ago, but this time, they weren't invited.

"I guess I was a little disappointed to find out they were meeting — the four premiers — and didn't tell anyone," said Janet Hazelton, president of the Nova Scotia Nurses' Union.

Private health care, she said, doesn't add up.

"So, we're saying now, 'If you privatize the health-care system, you're taking a finite number of health-care workers and putting them in the private system.' How is that going to make the public system better?"

Doctors, too, say betting on private care to shore up the system is a bet the provinces will lose.

"We're going to have to pull staff out of the public system to work in the private clinic," said Dr. Mark McMillan, president of the New Brunswick Medical Society.

"Yes, a patient will still be publically funded to go, but you have now reduced more services at the public level. So, what we need to do first is shore up the public level," said McMillan, adding he's not referring to doctors.

"I know Mr. Higgs doesn't like when I say 'more funding.' I'm not — I repeat — not asking for funding for physicians. We do that in our negotiation contracts every four years. But what we do [need], is more resources for the system and its employees to get them, number one, hired, attracted, and then kept here with other incentives," McMillan said.

"We have to be careful, because we do know that when you set up private clinics, when you set up private surgeries, or set up private walk-in clinics or practices, sometimes your brightest go there, and your best go there, leaving the public system underfunded," said Dr. Trevor Jain, an emergency room physician in Charlottetown.

"Look, if we're talking private health care, people think of private hospitals, but it also could be a product, and if each of us have access to a health service, then maybe that could be something that could be looked at," said Jain.

And while the Premiers did urge Ottawa to do more about staffing issues, the federal minister was setting his own limits on private care Tuesday.

"Regardless of how we manage health-care systems in Canada, we have to make sure that our system remains universal and accessible," said Jean Yves Duclos in Ottawa.

And while the four did agree on a "Team Canada" approach to make health care better, there weren't many details released on that, either.

Still, it's fairly clear private priorities are working their way up the agenda.