Clearly, "offering a single surgical service, abortion, at a free-standing
clinic" and "offering a wide range of surgical services in competition with
public facilities" are two different things. But Alberta's Bill C-11 is
proposing something that looks more like the former than the latter.

As I understand it, the intent is to achieve cost savings by allowing
surgical clinics to specialize in providing one type of surgical service on
contract to the regional health authorities - not to compete with the public
system by offering a wide range of services in a private hospital. I don't
necessarily agree with the proposed Bill. But I think we need to be clear on
what it is that we oppose: profit (it's already happening in the current
public health system!); challenging the status quo; or the vague, slippery
slop argument that says, "it doesn't say that but it could mean that!"

Alana

-----Original Message-----
From: Health Promotion on the Internet [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of frank timmermans
Sent: Wednesday, March 08, 2000 10:44 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Canadian Health Care at the Cross-Roads.


Providing a single surgical service, abortion, at a free standing clinic
because it is not readily available elsewhere is quite different from
offering a wide range of surgical services in competition with public
facilities.

Frank Timmermans