PEI party is proposing swapping excess spuds for Cuban doctors

[BruSan]

Whooee! If anyone on here thinks that old Hugo Chavez is flying into Cuba to have his cancer treated at the same hospitals that the peasantry is forced to use, you need your heads examined for more than just a lack of reality.

Leave the resort and travel into any populated area and take a gander into a "clinic" and the filth would leave you astounded while the general lack of any equipment along with the age of the existing stuff would render you speechless. Common forceps with chrome missing and rust showing would be the least of it. Some clinics are still relying on "boiling" instruments as a means of sterilization. How often do you think that water gets changed? Been there, seen it first hand.

C'mon folks; Cuban doctor's training notwithstanding; there's very few reasons to envy the Cuban health care across the board.

 

[Tonington]

Wow.... some of you are way off in lala land....Here's a corollary for those claiming the conditions are abhorrent.

My fiance is enrolled in her second year at the Atlantic Veterinary College. They have a teaching hospital with all the latest equipment for doing everything from aneasthetization to cardiac surgery to horse orthopedic surgery and everything in-between. In short they have everything you would expect to find in a university/research hospital.

This summer she went down to Central America with a volunteer organization. They provided veterinary services ranging from check-ups to parasite control, to surgery. The areas they did surgeries in had no closed areas with HEPA filters, no dedicating recovery room. The animals were recovered on a piece of cardboard on a dirt floor. They didn't lose any animals, because they were aware of the environment they were in, and took the necessary steps to mitigate that risk.

Sure, Cuban hospitals don't have the same infrastructure that we enjoy in the West, but they get by on per capita health care costs of close to $250 per person per year. In Canada we spend well over 10 times that amount, and we have barely distinguishable metrics on health care. Americans spend even more without getting better lifetime expectancy.

But this is all moot compared to the actual proposal made by the Island Party.

Perhaps most of you folks missed this part, but the idea is to bring doctors here, not Cuban style infrastructure.

The analogy to my fiance is that these are trained professionals, that deliver comparable results in conditions quite different from that which we enjoy here. If the conditions were so unsanitary, they wouldn't have similar life expectancies...

So long as they can show equivalency with our board exams for certification, then they'd be fine. Recently an American physician tried to practice here in PEI. His familly has been spending their summers here for decades, and this year he finally decided that he would like to offer his services here. But, he would have to be interviewed, and potentially take some school to refresh. This was unacceptable to him, as he has practiced in the US for years. But that's the kind of bureaucracy we have. Would be no different for a Cuban doctor.

 

[Bar Sinister]

Perhaps most of you folks missed this part, but the idea is to bring doctors here, not Cuban style infrastructure.

The analogy to my fiance is that these are trained professionals, that deliver comparable results in conditions quite different from that which we enjoy here. If the conditions were so unsanitary, they wouldn't have similar life expectancies...

So long as they can show equivalency with our board exams for certification, then they'd be fine. Recently an American physician tried to practice here in PEI. His familly has been spending their summers here for decades, and this year he finally decided that he would like to offer his services here. But, he would have to be interviewed, and potentially take some school to refresh. This was unacceptable to him, as he has practiced in the US for years. But that's the kind of bureaucracy we have. Would be no different for a Cuban doctor.

Exactly my point although some seemed to miss it. However, why confine ourselves to Cuban doctors? As I pointed out there are many well-trained foreign doctors in Latin America - and in India too for that matter. Many of them received their training in Western nations before returning home and they offer first rate service to anyone who has cash for a fraction of the cost here. If governments are really so concerned with cutting health care costs here why not make use of qualified foreign doctors? If you really want free enterprise and competition in health care then this would be an easy way to achieve it.

 

[bill barilko]

Exactly my point although some seemed to miss it. However, why confine ourselves to Cuban doctors? As I pointed out there are many well-trained foreign doctors in Latin America - and in India too for that matter. Many of them received their training in Western nations before returning home and they offer first rate service to anyone who has cash for a fraction of the cost here. If governments are really so concerned with cutting health care costs here why not make use of qualified foreign doctors? If you really want free enterprise and competition in health care then this would be an easy way to achieve it.

Sigh.....we've been through all this before

1-Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons in Canada don't want those people here and they have an effective veto.

2-I actually went to a heart specialist from India that had somehow got into Canada-simply put the man was a lying sleazy idiot/slovenly and totally misdiagnosed my condition-Never Again!

In addition I've lived in Latina America-medical care generally is several steps below what we have on offer here-standards just aren't the same.

 

[JLM]

Sigh.....we've been through all this before

1-Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons in Canada don't want those people here and they have an effective veto.

2-I actually went to a heart specialist from India that had somehow got into Canada-simply put the man was a lying sleazy idiot/slovenly and totally misdiagnosed my condition-Never Again!

In addition I've lived in Latina America-medical care generally is several steps below what we have on offer here-standards just aren't the same.

I don't think we are in a position now to be too choosy and certainly not in a position to judge all doctors to be of the calibre of the one you encountered from India. Actually in B.C. we have a lot of foreign trained doctors, I encountered several from South Africa. They were good. Even the worst doctors can probably stitch wounds and set bones, saving the intricate stuff for our home grown doctors.

 

[Bar Sinister]

Sigh.....we've been through all this before

1-Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons in Canada don't want those people here and they have an effective veto.

2-I actually went to a heart specialist from India that had somehow got into Canada-simply put the man was a lying sleazy idiot/slovenly and totally misdiagnosed my condition-Never Again!

In addition I've lived in Latina America-medical care generally is several steps below what we have on offer here-standards just aren't the same.

Actually Canadian physicians have no veto over medical procedures performed abroad. There is nothing to stop any Canadian from traveling to another country (as thousands have already done) and obtaining medical treatment. What simply needs to be done is for the provincial governments to identify which doctors have training and facilities on a par with those in Canada.

I sympathize with the fact that the heart specailist you went to was not up to Canadian standards, however, I have encountered Canadian born and Canadian trained physicians who were somewhat suspect, including a recent doctor who moved to another province but first sold my medical records to a private firm which then invited me to buy them back for my next doctor. There is no reason to suppose that every foreign doctor is incompetent or works out of a dingy back room.

As someone who has many friends who have retired to sunnier foreign climes I happen to know that they are quite happy with the medical standards they have encountered. As in all things there are good doctors and bad. It should be a simple matter to identify the former.

 

[bill barilko]

Actually Canadian physicians have no veto over medical procedures performed abroad. There is nothing to stop any Canadian from traveling to another country (as thousands have already done) and obtaining medical treatment. What simply needs to be done is for the provincial governments to identify which doctors have training and facilities on a par with those in Canada.

That's not what we're talking about here and you damned well know it-in what country can a Canadian pay for medical treatment in potatoes?

And the cost of freight?

As someone who has many friends who have retired to sunnier foreign climes I happen to know that they are quite happy with the medical standards they have encountered. As in all things there are good doctors and bad. It should be a simple matter to identify the former.

I speak as someone who's lived in Mexico and Central America-unless you have the dosh to pay Top Dollar-and they want $$$$ not local currency or potatoes-you'll be dealing with third rate hacks.

The Caribbean is even worse BTW and the South Pacific an outright horror.

 

[dumpthemonarchy]

Actually Mexico has good doctors as Americans cross the border to get cheaper medical services.

This loony idea is s good reason why PEI should be eliminated as province and joined to New Brunswick, which should be joined to Nova Scotia to make one Maritime province.