Cost of universal health care in Canada is skyrocketing

You have my word this will be my last word on my recent excursion into illness at the Ottawa Hospital.

The Ottawa Hospital healthcare complex dominates the landscape, and together with the attached cancer clinic, it has to be the largest free-standing public structure east of the Pentagon.

In the 1960s, Canadian government leaders — such as prime minister Lester B. Pearson, health minister Judy LaMarsh, opposition leader John Diefenbaker and NDP leader Tommy Douglas — all sang from the same song sheet. They couldn’t have envisaged the escalating costs of providing universal medical and hospital care.

Would you believe that in 2013-14, Ontario will spend $48.9 billion on health care? That represents 38.5 per cent of the province’s total budget. Slowly, but inexorably, with an aging population, that number is creeping toward 50 per cent.

The founding fathers of Canada’s health plan could hardly be faulted if some provinces bolted the traces and levied fees at variance with the fees charged by other provinces.

For example, an ambulance ride anywhere in the Ottawa-Carleton district is $45. That same transport by ambulance in Cape Breton could set you back by as much as $650 for just a few blocks.

Don’t question those numbers. That happened to a friend of mine who was visiting Sydney.

The man in Ottawa whose broad shoulders carry the respon- sibility of managing one of Canada’s largest research hospitals is Dr. Jack Kitts, an Ottawa Valley medical doctor whose specialty was in anesthesia.

Before assuming the title of chief executive officer at the Ottawa Hospital, Kitts was the hospital’s vice-president of medical affairs. He led the medical staff during a complex merger of three large hospitals and five large programs. He is still associate professor of anesthesia at the University of Ottawa.

Kitts also served as a medical officer in Canada’s Armed Forces for three years.

While I was growing up in Canada’s biggest town — Glace Bay — there were two major hospitals. An order of Roman Catholic nuns managed St. Joseph’s Hospital up on Chapel Hill. Across town, the General Hospital catered to non-Catholic patients.

To the best of my recollection, there was only one male nurse in the entire town. He was looked upon with a jaundiced eye. Today, the tide has turned in favour of more male nurses.

The starting salary for a registered nurse (RN) is $30 an hour, escalating to $45 an hour after eight years service and modest increases when the $45 cap is reached.

The Ottawa Hospital has to deal with 12,000 unionized employees or members of a professional association. Cleaners are paid $22-$23 an hour, which isn’t all that shabby considering the light duties.

The Ottawa Hospital provides the largest dialysis clinic, followed by smaller clinics elsewhere in the city.

The Ottawa Hospital’s cancer clinic has no equal.

What can one say about the quality of care extended by the hospital’s nursing staff? During the 45 days I was a patient in there, I was moved four to five times to different rooms. Why? Don’t ask me. Once I was in total isolation for four days.

The nurses were sweethearts and I tried not to buzz them too often.

I did learn that the majority (those without an RN designation) were working on a three-to-four-year course, which cost them $7,000 yearly in tuition fees. Once they have completed the three to four years of on-the-job training (and paid all tuition), they are entitled to post the coveted RN designation. Glace Bay-born Pat MacAdam has been a fly on the wall in national politics for half a century. He served as a spear carrier for prime ministers John Diefenbaker and Brian Mulroney, and as press officer at Canada’s High Commission in London. He’s in Ottawa (Bytown) now and can be reached at eyeopener_gatsby@rogers.com.