Privileged Patients in Medicare

Privileged PatientsPrivileged patients do not wait for healthcare in Canada like everyone else.   Privileged patients bypass

  • waiting rooms
  • wait lists for imaging
  • delays for consultation

Like Nexus cardholders zipping past airport security, privileged patients get seen in a different line.

The old sarcasm is true: you go into healthcare to get great care for yourself and your family.

We console ourselves that only unique cases get preferential treatment, rare exceptions.  Just as long as ordinary people do not get treated like privileged patients.  While we do not like it, we can live with a few getting special privileges.

Privileged Patients We Can Tolerate (sort of)

  • Professional athletes
  • Worker’s compensation patients (WSIB)
  • Federal politicians
  • People able to travel to USA (or Quebec) for tests
  • Visitors from outside Canada

But we cannot bear the thought that our fellow Canadians, our next-door neighbours, might be getting treated like privileged patients.

Privileged Patients You Do Not Tolerate

  • Doctors
  • Nurses
  • Family members of doctors and nurses
  • Donors who give big gifts to hospital foundations
  • Hospital board members
  • Minor celebrities
  • Local politicians
  • Close friends of health care workers
  • Police
  • Fire
  • Ambulance workers
  • Hospital employees (especially with their badges on)
  • Even Lawyers acting lawyerly get treated and kicked out of EDs as fast as possible.

The list goes on…

Managed care requires armies of managers to keep it fair and equitable.  Even with legions of managers, ‘professional courtesy’ still guarantees your neighbours could be one of the privileged patients.

In a system with intolerable waits and inconvenience, we find ways to give great service to our most privileged patients.  Why not extend the service to all?

 

4 thoughts on “Privileged Patients in Medicare”

  1. Equal access of medicare is a myth!For all the dollars spent in Alberta to study Q-jumping…we learned nothing. So much movement is “who you know”. Courtesy service is also human nature…Doubt you can legislate effectivly against it. More important, in a democratic country…should you!

    Just this week, saw a patint with a tic. Correctly Dx by GP. referred to me (Paediatrician) to refer onto a tertiary provider AS mother worked at HSC and already set up a consult with a Neuro to see her child. Very expensive access. Not needed access. All happened within 1 week!

    1. Great example, Karen!

      To anyone overseeing, they would need a very sophisticated perspective to tell when queue jumping or expedited processes occur. I agree that ‘courtesy service is also human nature’. In fact, we would have trouble distinguishing courtesy service from ‘expedited care’ for patients we worry about.

      I love your opening line: “Equal access of medicare is a myth!” Very tweet-able… 🙂

      Thanks so much for taking the time to read and comment!

      Best regards,

      Shawn

  2. Is it queue jumping when a patient (or parent of a patient) is extremely anxious, so we pick up the phone, call the specialist’s office and say ” hey listen, this person is losing it, would you please work him/her in”. And they find a spot.

    1. But that would count as an ’emergency’, right? Clearly not queue jumping. 😉

      Great comment!

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