Day isn’t the problem with health system

Re: “Can our health system survive two-tier care?” column, May 13. Lawrie McFarlane is probably correct regarding the outcome of the province’s battle with Dr. Brian Day; whether the outcome matters is debatable.

McFarlane is concerned about the fate of our public health system. Whether one shares that concern depends on the relative importance one attaches to principle versus performance. Equal access to care, regardless of ability to pay, is a laudable principle and worth defending, provided that is what the health system delivers; otherwise, it is just ideology.

The people who lead our health system have had ample time to undermine Day’s prescription for what ails the system. Instead, we’ve gone from problems with wait times to a situation where 17 per cent of the population do not have a primary-care provider. We are two decades into the century and the minister of health last week announced initiatives that he said bring us into the 21st century.

Day is not going to fix the health system, but neither is he the reason we are where we are. Either the public health system is unworkable, in which case McFarlane’s concerns are moot and the public needs alternatives, or those who lead the health system are responsible for the current state of affairs and for lending credibility to Day. James Murtagh Oak Bay